A woman attacked with a hammer and knife by her mum's ex-partner has described her desperate fight to stop him ​from killing her.

Nicole Higgins told jurors at Maidstone Crown Court that Gerard Parkinson was "absolutely deranged" as he repeatedly swung the rubber mallet at her head​ and lashed out with a knife.

​Having been struck to the back of her head and her forehead, she managed to ​grab the tool from him and hit him to the temple in self-defence​.

​But Miss Higgins said that because she had also been stabbed in the neck, ​she felt a "bubbling sensation" in her throat​, was struggling for breath​ and losing energy.

​It was only after her screams for help alerted others that she managed to escape.

Giving her account ​to police six days after the mid-morning attack ​on March ​1, 2023​, she said: "I think he was trying to kill me.

​"He didn't want me to survive and I didn't believe him when he said 'I'll stop if you stop'. I wasn't going to stop defending myself."

​Parkinson, 63, of Parkhill Road, Sidcup, is on trial accused of attempting to murder both Miss Higgins and her mum, Jennifer Higgins.

He and Mrs Higgins had been in an on-and-off relationship for several years but at the time of the attack he had been living at the Higgins family home in Bonney Way, Swanley, for just over a year.

The jury was told that Mrs Higgins was reaching for a Milky Way chocolate bar from a kitchen cupboard when she was suddenly hit with the mallet to the back of the head by Parkinson.

Leaving her unconscious and bleeding on the floor, he then went upstairs to the bedroom where her daughter was asleep.

In a video recorded interview made while Miss Higgins was still in hospital recovering from her injuries, she described waking in bed to the sound of heavy breathing in her face and feeling an "instant and overwhelming" pain in her head and neck.

She also felt a trickling sensation from blood before seeing Parkinson leaning over her and repeatedly aiming the hammer at her.

"It was light, my curtains were open. I could see who was in my room, I could see my door was closed," she explained in the video and played in court.

"My bed takes up the whole room and he was on the bed, leaning over me with this weapon.

"I said 'What are you doing?' in a panic but he just continued to aim this hammer at me."

Miss Higgins said Parkinson had bought the tool during a family holiday in Cornwall, a purchase she and her mum had questioned at the time.

‘All I remember is the sensation of this bubbling feeling and struggling to breathe...’

Describing how the attack unfolded, she said he continued swinging the hammer at her with his right hand.

"I was just trying to push him off. He was swinging it quite a few times. I don't know how many times he hit me," said Miss Higgins.

"I think it was twice (to the forehead), it could have been more. Once to the back of the head.

"I felt very foggy and slowed down. Everything was in slow motion....Then I remember struggling to breathe and a bubbling sensation and I realised he had two weapons.

"It was a very rusty knife or file...It was in his left hand under his coat...All I remember is the sensation of this bubbling feeling and struggling to breathe.

"I remember him aiming at my face and I had my hands over my face."

Miss Higgins said as she got off the bed and tried to push Parkinson away, he continued to aim at her throat and face, telling her "They're all gone" and laughing.

Fearing her family had been killed, she told police she grabbed the hammer and hit him once before "stupidly" dropping it on the bed.

"I said 'Please stop, please stop' and he said 'I'll stop if you stop'. He repeated that for a long time," Miss Higgins said.

She also recalled his reaction to her calling for help but finding it difficult to speak.

"I remember him laughing as I was doing it, saying 'They are all gone'," she explained.

Asked by the officer how Parkinson appeared in his demeanour, she replied: "Deranged, crazy, repeating, heavy breathing. Absolutely deranged."

Miss Higgins added she had never before seen Parkinson in that state.

When questioned about hitting Parkinson herself, she told police: "I managed to get the hammer out of his hand and must have stupidly dropped it on the bed.

"I remember hitting him once. I just couldn't breathe. My energy was getting less and less.

"The knife was all over the place. I don't know if he was aiming at my body or not."

Miss Higgins eventually managed to flee but as she tried to hold the door shut to stop Parkinson escaping he ​grabbed her hair through the gap​.

"Gerard was banging on the door, going crazy, trying to get out of the bedroom. I just didn't want him to get out," she said.

​As her energy waned, Miss Higgins let go of the door handle, ran down the stairs and out the front door where she collapsed on the path.

By this time, nearby residents had been alerted to the commotion and the emergency services called.

Miss Higgins said she then saw Parkinson at the door and holding the hammer, whereupon he was tackled by neighbour Chris King, restrained on the floor and disarmed.

The court heard that when Mrs Higgins had regained consciousness in her kitchen, she believed she had had a stroke, lost her balance and hit her head.

Unaware of Parkinson's attack on her and her daughter upstairs, she crawled to the front door where others attempted to pull her to safety.

Describing the scene from outside, Miss Higgins said: "My mum was there in a purple dressing gown. She was sitting either on the floor or a chair.

"She said she had had a stroke or something. I just remember it becoming very cloudy and air, or oxygen, was struggling to get into me.

"I do remember him swinging the mallet, the hammer, at my mum. This was when he appeared at the front door when I had first dropped down on the pavement.

"But someone stopped him. Chris grabbed Gerard."

Miss Higgins said she did not remember being stabbed in the neck area, just the sensation and "lots of blood".

She also told police she did not know what had provoked the attack.

But she said Parkinson had blamed her mum over the past year for his poor health.

Expressing her opinion that his conditions were "imaginary", she explained: "He said he had something wrong with his head, neck, both legs - all these ailments he was Googling on his phone.

"When I had sat down and had a conversation with him about them he blamed my mum."

Miss Higgins's injuries included a collapsed lung from her stab wound as well as cuts to her hands.

The jury was told that although Parkinson denies attempted murder, he has admitted two offences of wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and perverting the course of justice.

It is the prosecution case however that having deliberately armed himself, he intended to kill both women, and the only reason he stopped his attacks was because he was either disarmed or physically stopped by others.

Neighbour Christopher King told the jury he was making a cup of tea in his kitchen when he heard a commotion and saw one of the Higgins family running out of their house, screaming.

Giving evidence on Tuesday (March 25), he described how Nicole Higgins also came outside, covered in blood and saying she had been stabbed before collapsing on the ground.

Mr King then heard Mrs Higgins screaming from next door and so went to investigate.

"I went to the front door and that's when I saw Gerard and Jenny struggling with each other," he told the court.

"They were at the front door, both of them. I think she was trying to escape.

"Gerard had Jenny's hair, she was trying to hold his arm. He had a hammer in his hand."

Explaining how the incident unfolded in "split seconds", Mr King continued: "She had hold of his hand where the hammer was. She was trying to get the hammer.

"She was covered in blood. She was asking me to help her, screaming.

"I grabbed the hammer, threw it away and then grabbed hold of Gerard, dragged him outside and threw him on the floor."

Mr King said as others tended to Mrs Higgins, he sat on Parkinson to ensure he did not get to his feet.

"I asked him what it was about and to calm down, and he said something like 'She had been picking on me all morning', or something like that," he continued.

"I let him go after about two minutes because he said he couldn't breathe so I let him sit up. I just stood over him so he couldn't move.

"I got someone to get him a tissue because he had a gash to his head. I put it against his head and told him to hold it on there."

Mr King maintained during cross-examination by Parkinson's barrister, John FitzGerald, that it was he who was holding the hammer and not Mrs Higgins.

But he agreed he remembered Parkinson telling him: "She was calling me useless all morning and I just want to cut my own throat."

The trial continues.