A WOMAN on her way to work fought off a sex attacker who dragged her into a Bolton churchyard, smashing him in the face with her travel mug, a court has heard.

The woman told how she feared she was going to be raped after Jonathan Kabala refused her offer of cash and told her “I want this”, while attempting to unbutton her trousers.

“I thought he was going to kill me,” she told police in a video interview played to a jury at Bolton Crown Court.

Her ordeal ended after a woman passing by heard her screams and called the police and a man ventured into the grounds of Bolton Parish Church and confronted her alleged attacker, filming him on his mobile phone.

Jonathan Dickinson, prosecuting, told the trial how, at 7am on October 2 last year the woman had been making her way to work along Bradshawgate after arriving in Bolton town centre by bus.

Walking in the opposite direction was 41-year-old Kabala, who followed her as she turned into Silverwell Street.

The woman told how she heard footsteps running behind her as she neared the entrance gate to the parish church but assumed it was a jogger until the man spun round in front of her, grabbed her arms and asked her, “how are you?”

When she refused his demands to go with him, he dragged her into the churchyard, pushed her to the ground and held a knife to her neck.

“It was at this point she defended herself by hitting out with her mug,” said Mr Dickinson, who added that, despite Kabala putting his hand over her mouth, her screams alerted people nearby.

Several times the woman tried to get away, at one point unzipping her jacket and slipping her arms from her sleeves, but she only got a few paces before her grabbed her again, forcing her into bushes and pinning her down.

The woman told the police Kabala repeatedly told her, “I don’t want to hurt you but I will.”

“The defendant was grabbing at her pants, seemingly trying to undo them,” said Mr Dickinson.

When Caleb Kane who had heard the screams, arrived on the scene and told Kabala to stop, the woman took advantage of her attacker being distracted to grab the kitchen knife from him and throw it out of his reach.

Mr Kane used his mobile phone to film Kabala.

“At the end the defendant is seen to just stand up and walk away in a seemingly calm manner,” said Mr Dickinson.

Kabala, who was wearing a distinctive Superdry jacket, was caught on town centre CCTV and, later that day, was arrested.

In an interview with police he admitted he had taken a knife from home, put it in his sock and gone for a walk around town to find someone “to set upon”.

He told police he had pulled the knife out after he and the woman fell to the ground in a scuffle but denied that his motives were sexual.

“He said people had been calling him a girl and insulting him and this was a way, he said, of asserting himself and making things right,” said Mr Dickinson.

Kabala, of Chadwick Street, Bolton, denies kidnap, kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence, threatening the woman with a knife and possessing a knife. The trial continues.