Two women have relived the terrifying moment they were attacked in car parks by a knife-wielding sex fiend wearing a stocking over his head more than 26 years ago.

The assaults happened in July 1990 in multi-storeys in Chatham and Gravesend.

Their attacker was not brought to justice at the time but advances in DNA testing led to the arrest in 2015 of former baker John Clayson, who was jailed for five years in February 1995 for attempting to rape a woman in Cornwall at knifepoint.

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard forensic experts were able to make a match from a stocking worn on the attacker’s head to Clayson’s DNA profile.

The 60-year-old, of Upper Fant Road, Maidstone, denies attempted rape, indecent assault and having an offensive weapon in relation to one of the women and false imprisonment, indecent assault and another serious sexual offence in relation to the other woman.

He also denies committing three other serious sexual offences with another woman.

Clayson was at the time living in Dagmar Road, Chatham, and working at a bakers in Denton, Gravesend.

One of the women said she had been shopping at Anglesea car park, now Thamesgate, in Gravesend when a man jumped on her back.

She did not scream in case it was someone she knew but then the stranger ordered her to be quiet.

The woman, then 21, said she refused his demand to get into her car but he grabbed around her throat. He tightened his grip and she agreed to do as he said.

She offered him money. She sat in the passenger seat and he went to the driver’s side.

Giving evidence from behind screens, she said: “At this point I realised something bad was going to happen, so I said to myself ‘Just get through it and see if you can look at him.’.

“It was then I noticed he had something on his face to the end of his chin. It didn’t fit very well and it looked like a stocking or tights.”

The man fumbled in his pocket and tied her hands behind her back with a pair of tights.

The attacker pushed her head down as a couple walked near the car.

"I realised something bad was going to happen, so I said to myself 'Just get through it and see if you can look at him'" - Clayson's alleged victim

“He said something like ‘Pretend we are together. I’ve got a knife. Just be quiet. Don’t do anything, don’t look.’.

“But I turned my head and I was pleading with my eyes for the people to do something. But they just got in their car and drove off.

“I hoped they would come to my help and thought surely they would see it wasn’t right, but when they drove off I remember thinking: ‘This is it now.’.”

He touched the inside of her right thigh and squeezed her breast before putting a plaster over her mouth to stop her screaming.

The man tried to drive her car but could not manage the gears. Staying parked, he pulled her underwear down to her thighs and assaulted her.

He told her to move closer to him and unzipped his jeans. “I guessed I was going to be raped and just looked away,” she said.

Her attacker then subjected her to a serious sexual offence.

“I could feel his breathing and it got heavier on my shoulder,” she said. “It actually didn’t last that long.”

He warned her to stay in the car or he would return, and then ran off.

She managed to free her left arm and pulled the plaster from her mouth. “I was just shaking and thought I have to get out,” she continued.

As she searched for her parking ticket at the exit barrier she spotted her attacker, minus the stocking, driving a car.

“I was still obviously shaking and when I saw him I thought he was going to do something because I hadn’t waited,” she said. “He was just staring at me and I could see he was angry.”

He left the car park when another vehicle pulled up behind him.

The woman drove to the nearby police station with the tights still tied to one wrist to report what had happened.

Her attacker was not brought to justice at the time. She contacted the police again in late 2014, as she believed he could be Colin Ash-Smith, who was convicted of murdering schoolgirl Claire Tiltman in 1993.

She was later contacted by “cold case” detectives.

The other attack was 16 days earlier.

"I was getting upset and said: 'Don't hurt me. Don't rape me. Please take my money.' He kept saying 'Shush'" - Clayson's alleged victim

The woman, then 19, had been to Gillingham to drop off her brother. She then drove to Chatham, where she was due to meet her mother.

She had parked on the top floor of the multi-storey car park at the Pentagon Centre in the early afternoon when she noticed a man wandering around.

“I took note of what he was wearing in case he was eying up the cars,” she said. “Because it was raining, I ran to the lift.

“I don’t know where this man came from. He grabbed my forearm and pushed me up against a wall. I knew immediately it was the man I had seen in the car park.

“He had a stocking or pop sock over his head. It was tied in a knot at the top. It was very ripped and very laddered. I could see all his facial features.

“He had on a tatty leather jacket, very worn, jeans and trainers. He had a knife in his hand. He had it down by his side.

“He pushed the lower part of his body into mine. I was trying not to panic. He stroked my mouth and my face and said ‘Shush’.

“I asked him not to hurt me and said I had money and car keys.”

She took out money and her keys and pushed it into his jacket, but he gave them back to her.

“I was pinned against the wall,” she continued. “He unpopped my jacket. He folded up the knife and put it in his jacket. He put his hands under my top and started touching my chest.

“I was getting upset and said: ‘Don’t hurt me. Don’t rape me. Please take my money.’ He kept saying ‘Shush’.

“I thought he was going to rape me. He put his hand down the front of my trousers. I could hear the noise of the lift in the background. I could hear the bell dinging.

“The mask didn’t really cover his face at all. He ran through the doors into the car park. I was pushing the buttons of the lift hoping someone would come.

“The doors opened and there was a lady and her mum with a pushchair. I ran into the lift crying uncontrollably saying: ‘I have been attacked.’”

The mother and daughter took the woman to her mother. She later attended an identification parade and picked out a man she believed was her attacker, but heard nothing more.

She was not contacted by police until 2015.

The trial continues.