A trainee teacher has spoken of the terror she felt after leaping from a third-floor window to escape knife-wielding burglars - rendering her disabled for life.

Speaking via satellite link from Italy, Ghanaian-born Patricia Osie-Assiby, who had been staying with her cousin and family in Hendon last August, told Harrow Crown Court how the burglars said she had two minutes to show where the money is or be stabbed'.

On the morning of Sunday, August 14, she had gone out for around 20 minutes to process some photographs and on her return was unable to unlock the door.

She said: "I tried again and this time the door suddenly opened. I entered and the next thing a hand grabbed my neck, another grabbed my mouth, while someone took my mobile."

Ms Osie-Assiby, 34, who was attending a three-month teacher training course in London, and now lives in Italy, told the court that two men, both in black suits and one of them masked, then pushed her against a wall and demanded to know where the money was.

She described the flat as having been turned upside down', with books and clothes scattered in the corridor and a bed overturned.

After being beaten and slapped', she was bundled into her bedroom and again asked where the cash was kept. She suggested they go to the main room and made her escape by risking a 30ft drop when the attacker's accomplice pulled out a long knife.

She said: "I didn't wait for them to come back because I was so frightened of being stabbed and that was when I decided to jump from the window. I was crying and shaking. I was so afraid for my life. I just jumped."

Landing on concrete, she tried to get up but collapsed in pain and immediately started screaming for help.

She was in hospital for one month with three fractured vertebrae in her back and has now been declared an invalid who cannot work and has to use crutches.

Three days later one of the alleged burglars, Eric Damoa, 29, of Rodgers Road, Canning Town, is said to have returned with two others to threaten the remaining occupants of the house, including a 13-year-old girl, with a gun.

Damoa, Frank Agyemang, 30, of Mulberry Court, Leytonstone, and Charles Antwi, 31, of Exchange Walk, Pinner, deny aggravated burglary.

Agyemang and Damoa deny false imprisonment. Antwi denies perverting the course of justice.

Nigel Prescod, 26, of Queensbridge Road, Hackney, admitted involvement in the first raid. and pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and false imprisonment.

He, and a fifth man who has pleaded guilty to involvement in the second attack, will be sentenced later.

The case continues.