A mum-of-two has told a jury how robbers armed with a gun and a knife raided her trailer home in Yalding demanding money.

Terrified Chloe Smith told Maidstone Crown Court how she feared her partner Tom Fellowes was going to die.

She said she was asleep on the sofa at The Paddocks, Benover Road but at 3am she was awoken by her partner shouting: "Who's out there?"

She told how, despite being "stark naked", he grabbed a machete, which he kept in the cupboard, and went outside to confront the men.

Ms Smith claimed: "I saw a torch through the window. It was then I realised that someone was there. Then the glass front door was smashed.

"I got up and ran to the front door and one of the boys [alleged robbers] came to me. I heard Tom shouting. There was a tall man stood in front of me. He was about six foot. He had a green Parker coat with the hood up and a black thing covering half his face.

"He said 'get in'. He had a London accent and was holding what I believed was a gun.

"He pushed my chest. I was pushed backwards and I went back and sat down on the sofa. One of my children was asleep and my other child was very upset.

"Tom got dragged through the smashed front door by two men. He was smothered in blood. I couldn't tell what injuries he had.

"I didn't know how many people ended up inside the caravan whether it was four, five or six. One of the men, who was also wearing gloves and a mask and a black hood, asked me for my phone. I said I hadn't got one.

"He repeated the same question and I showed him where it was in the corner and he took it. He was about five foot and five inches tall."

Mr Fellowes was allegedly forced to stay on the floor as alleged raiders demanded to know where the money was.

She added: "They wouldn't let him get up. They were just demanding money and Tom was saying that we didn't have any money.

"Tom then said there might be money in the bedroom. Two of them made me show them where the money was in a cupboard. I saw one of the boys take £10."

She told how she was still holding her child in her arms as her husband was "fighting for his life".

Ms Smith alleged: "He was hit with an adjustable metal spanner and stabbed several times. They were hitting his hands and his knees each time he tried to get up. He was stabbed in the head and one of the boys with the knife was saying: 'Tell me where the money is.'

"I was screaming and panicking . Tom's head was pulled back and a knife put under his chin. One of the men said: 'Just shoot him.'

"Someone had also brought a rope and they tried to tie him up. I kept saying stop it because it was in front of the kids. I thought at one point Tom was going to die. I said stop you are frightening the children.

"I ran out the front door onto the patio with one of my children in my arms and screamed for help from a neighbour.

"I then got hauled from behind. The man put a hand over my mouth to stop me screaming and pulled me back inside.

"I remember he tried to bite my nose. It was a weird feeling. The events felt like they lasted forever but it all happened so quick. Then they all just ran off leaving one of them, the taller one with the coat, behind. Then I remember a voice saying: 'Come on let's go' and he went too, I think they all ran away."

After checking to to see if her partner was OK she then took another phone and called the emergency services.

"It was only later I realise two of our Rolex watches had been taken", she alleged.

Six men and a woman are on trial accused of being either 'principals or accessories' in the raid in Yalding in the early hours of March 16 last year.

Marlon Manning, 43, from The Green, Bearsted; Kodee Powell, 24, of no fixed address; Stephan Allen, 25, from Chigwell in Essex; and Jhabril Freeman, 42, from East Dulwich, London all deny conspiracy to rob.

Manning, Powell, Allen and Freeman also deny having an imitation firearm with intent, as well as causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Fellowes with intent.

"I ran out the front door with one of my children in my arms and screamed for help... I then got hauled from behind. The man put a hand over my mouth... he tried to bite my nose..." — Chloe Smith

Manning has also pleaded not guilty to possessing ammunition, namely a modified 9mm blank cartridge, found by police during a police search of his home on July 19 last year.

The court heard he and Allen are also accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice in August last year by seeking to induce Mr Fellowes to retract evidence he gave in his witness statement to police.

Robert Powell, 49, who is the father of Kodee and from Grays in Essex; and Asif Malik, 43, from Ilford, Essex, deny encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence by providing the Mercedes said to have been used during the robbery.

Amy Wallace, 31, of Lancashire Road, Maidstone, is accused of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence by allowing her home to be used by those committing violent crime.

The court previously heard that there had been "bad feeling" between Mr Fellowes and Wallace, whose ex-boyfriend was in prison at the time for a £20,000 burglary at the home of one of Mr Fellowes' sisters two months earlier.

It is alleged that Manning, a former partner of Wallace's, then made threatening phone calls to Mr Fellowes.

In response Mr Fellowes warned that the man responsible for the break-in and anyone who sided with him would 'get a hiding'.

The trial continues.

Read more: Trial previously hears how dad was stabbed in front of children.

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