A 49-year-old man has been cleared of wounding a young mum and attempting to rape her.

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court found Alan Cornelius of Dolphin Street, Herne Bay, not guilty of the attack in the town's Memorial Park at 11.45pm on June 17 this year.

The woman, who is 25 and cannot be named for legal reasons, described to the court how a man had pushed her to the ground and pulled down her leggings and underwear.

In the struggle she said she was slashed as many as 12 times, suffering deep cuts to her body and bruising to her face.

The victim said she did not see her attacker’s face, but added: “He had a really dirty deep voice. It was creepy, deep and croaky.”

She told the jury that the man hit her in the face.

“I think I had so many injuries because I was fighting back,” she said.

“I don’t know if he had a knife or glass. When he pulled down my underwear I freaked out. I kept booting him and then he just went.”

The woman said one of her arms was slashed 10 to 12 times and she had a 10-inch cut on one leg and a deep six-inch cut on the other. She also had bruising on her face and lower body.

“I didn’t know I had been cut on my legs at the time,” she said. “They were really hurting and afterwards I realised that was because of the cuts.”

She told the court she had decided to take a short cut through part of the park to meet a friend just before midnight when the attack happened. It was very dark at the time.