A WOMAN accused of assaulting two schoolgirls with a candlestick and a hammer made a false claim that she was the victim of a sex attack.

Aneliese Buchanan, 38, from Newport has a previous conviction for perverting the course of justice, a jury was told.

It was disclosed to them towards the end of the defence's case.

Buchanan is on trial after being charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to one alleged victim by leaving her with a gash on the top of her head by hitting her with a candlestick.

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The prosecution says she assaulted another girl by strangling her with clingfilm, striking her with a hammer and stabbing her with a screwdriver.

South Wales Argus: Aneliese Buchanan

Buchanan is further charged with perverting the course of justice over claims she contacted one of the complainants and asked her to “retract” her allegations.

The defendant denies all counts.

Giving evidence in her defence Buchanan said that she suffers with a number of health problems and her sight is severely impaired.

She told her barrister Emma Harris when questioned: “I have a bad heart as well. I take blockers for it. My heart rate can become erratic.”

Opening the case earlier this month, Heath Edwards, prosecuting, said of one of the complainants: “She attended the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran with a wound to the top of her head.

“It was a wound that she blamed the defendant for causing after hitting her on the head with a candlestick.”

Mr Edwards said the injury was “a gash on the top of her head”.

Buchanan later claimed that the girl’s wound had been self-inflicted and caused with a knitting implement.

Referring to the second complainant, the prosecutor said: “She said she strangled her with a roll of cling film, hit her with a hammer, stabbed her with a screwdriver and jumped on her head when she was on the floor.

“The allegations, the defendant says, are being made up.

“And so the principle issue for you, ladies and gentlemen, in relation to counts one to four to four, the allegations of violence, is did these acts of violence actually take place as the complainants say they did?”

The trial at Cardiff Crown Court in front of Judge Shomon Khan continues.