A MOTHER-of-three slashed her face and then claimed she was attacked, in a bitter inter-family feud.

Police found 30-year-old Sharon Tough shaking, and with dried blood on her cheek and forearm.

She told them Anthony Carter struck as she left her home with one of her children.

But Mr Carter had a solid alibi - he was helping a friend decorate a house.

And a Home Office pathologist shown a photograph of her injuries, concluded they were self-inflicted.

Prosecutor Stephen Duffield told Durham Crown Court: "It is right to say that there is a background of disputes, allegation and counter-allegation between the Tough family and the Carter family.''

Tough claimed the attack happened outside her home in Eglinton Street, Sunderland, in March 1998.

She told police she was "grabbed by the throat and told to drop charges against Christine, a relative of Mr Carter, and he slashed her face.''

But Mr Duffield said it "was proved without a shadow of a doubt'' that Mr Carter was not responsible because he was in another street, decorating a house.

"A result of Mr Carter, fortunately for him, having such an unassailable alibi was that the photographs of Mrs Tough's injuries were examined by a Home Office pathologist and it was his view that they were self-inflicted.''

Tough denied trying to pervert the course of justice, but was charged.

Mr Duffield said that after she missed magistrates' court appearances she handed in medical certificates she had altered to falsely say she had breast cancer.

Tough yesterday admitted two charges of trying to pervert the course of justice but sentence was adjourned for reports and the outcome of her appeal against conviction for assaulting police officers.

Judge Denis Orde told her: "My one word of advice is you don't engage in this very childish behaviour that is going on between your two families, because someone will get hurt eventually if it goes on.''

Afterwards, Mr Carter, 40, of Newbold Street, Sunderland, said he would be relieved when the case was finally over.

"I have been on the sick ever since it started. I am on anti-depressants," he said