A HOMELESS man beat a woman so badly her face became detached from her skull and she was left lying in a pool of her own blood near the riverside in Bewdley.

The traumatic injuries were so severe that the surgeon who treated her said they were consistent with those sustained in a high velocity road accident.

Anthony Laine, aged 30, of HMP Hewell, admitted grievous bodily harm but denied he did so with intent when he appeared before his honour judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins at Worcester Crown Court on Monday (January 30) for the opening day of his trial.

He further denies five counts of rape between July and August of last year at various locations including a house in Kidderminster and in Bewdley. One alleged rape took place inside a hotel and another at a disused shed.

At the time of the physical attack Laine had been living in a tent in woodland by the river Severn in Bewdley.

The jury of seven men and five women heard that the victim suffered a ragged 10cm cut which concealed a fracture to her skull and another v-shaped laceration over her right eye during the attack by the riverside in Bewdley on August 10, last year.

Timothy Sapwell, prosecuting, said: “He attacked her and caused her very serious injuries to her face, leaving her lying in a pool of her own blood by the river Severn.

“The defendant was seen running away from the scene."

Both her eyes were swollen shut and she had to have an operation to relieve the pressure on her eyes.

He said: “Scans showed several fractures to the bones of the face.

“The front part of the facial bone became detached from her skull which is known as ‘floating face’.”

He said the swelling was so bad they had to wait until August 16, for the swelling to go down and she then had to undergo a nine and a half hour operation.

Bone grafts from elsewhere in her skull had to be used to repair her nose and jaw.

Mr Sapwell said the surgeon had described the injuries as ‘severe bone disruption’. Mr Sapwell said: “This is the type of injury that is typically caused by high velocity impact such as a road traffic incident.”

When the surgeon heard that the injuries were caused by an assault not a car accident he said they would have been caused by ‘a significant and sustained assault'.

In interview Laine said he had thrown four or five punches, admitted causing GBH but denied he intended to do so.

A recorded interview with the victim was played to the jury. She wept as she gave evidence but said she could remember nothing of the attack. The last thing she remembered was being in a wine bar in Bewdley and the first thing she remembered after the attack was waking up in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

She said she had 14 fractures of the face which needed to be repaired including breaks to her nose and the top of her jaw.

They had to cut her eyelids to relieve the pressure on her eyes.

She said: “I’m okay. I just have to be.

“I’m still alive.”

In the interview, conducted on September 2, last year, she said she could not eat solid food and had to have milkshakes prescribed by medics.

The trial continues.