A WOMAN had her ear almost sliced off with a machete when she confronted a man she believed to be a sex offender, a court heard.

Tracey Campbell, 37, told Teesside Crown Court yesterday that she went to the home of Kevin Martin Heels after she allegedly heard he had been giving heroin to someone she knew and forcing her to have sex.

Miss Campbell said she went to his home in the early hours of August 12, last year, with the intention of hitting him and talking to him.

However, she said she was hit over the head with a baseball bat, then attacked with a blade.

She said: "He hit me with a bat over the head. I fell to the floor.

"I was frightened. There was a knife coming over me. All I can remember was this knife with a hook at the end and I was begging for my life.

"He said 'I'm going to kill you'. I said 'please don't, please don't."

Mr Heels denies wounding with intent.

Miss Campbell said she suffered a number of knife injuries to her hand, wrist, face and head as she tried to protect herself in the attack, alleged to have happened on the doorstep of 39-year-old Mr Heels' home in Carville Terrace, Crook, County Durham.

She said she finally managed to hide behind a bush in a neighbour's garden and tap on a window for help.

Miss Campbell, of Cowdray Close, Woodham, Newton Aycliffe, was taken to hospital, where the bottom of her left ear was stitched back on, and she received stitches to the back of her head.

She said: "I went there with the intention of hitting him, I hold my hands up to that, but I did not deserve what he did to me.

"He is a paedophile, he is a smackhead (heroin addict)."

She said he flashed at a child in Bishop Auckland and that she was concerned about the welfare of the person she knew.

She said: "People like that should not walk the streets."

Miss Campell, who admitted having a drink problem, was revealed in court as having a series of convictions for violence and criminal damage.

Among them, she helped to kidnap and assault a man she believed had stolen her son's bike, hitting an elderly man with a baseball bat, and throwing hot soup over an alleged sex offender.

The court heard she had asked her son to take her to Mr Heels' house on the night of the assault.

Her son said he did not approach the door with her, but then went to help his mother after she was struck with the bat.

He said he ran away after he was also struck.

He said he saw his mother walking down the street moments later covered in blood, while Mr Heels was brandishing the bat.

But defence barrister Chris Baker suggested Miss Campbell and her son had gone to the house armed with fenceposts and a sharp instrument, such as a chisel or screwdriver, which they denied.

The case continues.