The Penhill woman who said she threw herself out of a moving car to get away from her boyfriend has told a court he threatened to hurt her if she complained to the police.

Mother-of-one Tracey Hurley, 25, was left paralysed after falling onto the road between Lechlade and Fairford, and now uses a wheelchair.

Her boyfriend, 38-year-old Paul Bowell of Westminster Road, Toothill, denies inflicting grievous bodily harm and false imprisonment on May 5 last year.

At Swindon Crown Court yesterday Miss Hurley said that after the fall, Bowell had initially refused to drive her to hospital, telling her he would drive her home and call a doctor.

When Bowell finally agreed to take her to Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon, he made her tell doctors she had been knocked down by a car, the court heard.

"He said if I told police what had happened he was going to harm me, my daughter and my family and come after me," said Miss Hurley.

"I eventually told them what happened because the nurses needed to know."

But Mr Marcus Tregilgas-Davey, for the defence, said Bowell had not threatened Miss Hurley with physical harm at any time on the day of the incident.

She was intoxicated and was not being hit when she jumped from the car, he said.

"You were very drunk and you exaggerated things in your mind," said Mr Tregilgas-Davey.

"What happened was a result of your drunken state.

"You are using Bowell as justification for a drunken and foolish decision to jump out of that car.

"What you are doing is understandable but factually you are incorrect.

"It was clear to you that Bowell was utterly surprised and amazed that you jumped out of the car.

"When the car stopped Bowell got into the back of the car and he was cuddling you and trying to comfort you."

Mr Tregilgas-Davey said that Miss Hurley had got into her boyfriend's car willingly.

The two had started arguing over ex-partners and jealousy, he said.

"Twenty minutes before the incident you were perfectly happy in the pub. When the car did stop at a number of traffic lights and roundabouts you did not get out," he said.

But Miss Hurley said the argument started because Bowell wanted to drive after drinking.

"I didn't want to go into his car because he had been drinking," she said. "But I thought if I got into the car he would stop shouting at me.

"I was a little drunk but I wasn't so out of it that I don't know what he did. All I was trying to do was fight him off."

Miss Hurley said she jumped out of the moving car because she was convinced Bowell wanted to kill her.

In a witness statement read to the court, Dr Firas Fawzi Jamil, a spinal surgeon at Salisbury District Hospital who has treated Miss Hurley, said she had suffered fractured and dislocated vertebra, fractured ribs and bruising to the upper chest.

He said her injuries were consistent with a person jumping from a car moving at 30mph, and suggested she sustained her injury when she hit the floor.

"She has no sense of feeling or control of her limbs below her chest," said Dr Jamil.

"Tracey's paralysis is permanent.

"There is no treatment known to man which can return movement to her lower body."

The trial continues.