A MOTHER-OF-TWO set up elaborate rape scenes before alerting the police to claim she had been sexually assaulted, a court heard.

Gail Sherwood, 52, walked to secluded woodland spots - including the former home of Princess Michael of Kent - before texting friends to say she was in trouble.

On one occasion she was found naked from the waist down, wearing rubber gloves, her mouth covered with gaffer tape and her hands tied behind her.

Another time she was found by a police helicopter half-naked behind a fence with white bandage stuffed in her mouth and her hands bound behind her with garden ties.

She told police she was being harassed by a mystery stalker and later tried to accuse a random motorist after they were involved in a minor car crash.

He was arrested on suspicion of harassment and held in police custody for 20 hours before being released without charge.

Sherwood, of Thrupp, has denied three charges of perverting the course of justice at Bristol Crown Court.

David Morgan, prosecuting, said she made up the allegations to seek attention.

''She said she had lied because she was feeling lonely and needed attention,'' he told the jury.

''Don't be fooled into thinking that she should get a sympathy verdict.

''She has caused immense distress to friends who thought she was in real danger. "She was selfish and not hearing of others needs including her family.

''She caused the arrest of an innocent man who spent far longer in custody than she did.''

Ms Sherwood first told police that she was being harassed by a mystery stalker in November 2007.

She said that she received strange telephone calls and had been followed home on the motorway.

On one occasion she told police that flowers had been left on her doorstep and addressed to 'My Honeypot'.

The police sent a crime prevention officer to her house to install security measures and give advice.

On April 12, 2008 she had a minor car accident with a stranger near her house and subsequently called police and said the man involved was her stalker.

The man was tracked down, arrested and detained for 20 hours at a police station on suspicion of harassment but was then released without charge.

On April 25, 2008 she went for a walk with her dogs at Haresfield Beacon before sending text messages to friends saying that she was in trouble.

Her friends immediately alerted police who sent the police helicopter and found Ms Sherwood lying by a fence on the edge of the grounds.

She had her hands tied together, bandage stuffed in her mouth, was naked from the waist down and said that she had been raped.

Mr Morgan told the court: ''The police operation involved forensic examination of scenes, police helicopters and sniffer dogs - exactly what you would expect if these were real allegations.''

Ms Sherwood was examined by doctors who raised concerns about whether her wounds were self-inflicted, but police continued to investigate.

She is accused of staging a second rape scene on June 1, 2008 in the grounds of the former home of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent - Nether Lypiatt Manor, near Stroud.

The alarm was raised when she posed as her stalker and sent a text message from her own mobile phone to a friend who had been staying with her.

It read: ''Patience is always rewarded. You should have stayed a little bit longer. Now it's my turn.''

She was found by police with gaffer tape covering her mouth, wearing rubber gloves and with her hands tied together, claiming to have been raped again by the same man.

Ms Sherwood was examined by a different medical examiner who also concluded that her wounds were self-inflicted.

Mr Morgan said: ''The linear scratches were all in accessible areas, grouped together and showed a degree of control. The examiner said that they were typical of self-infliction.''

''She said she put the gag into her mouth because she realised that people would ask why she had not shouted for help.''

Ms Sherwood faces a third count of perverting the course of justice in relation to numberous claims of harrassment between November 2007 and April 2008.

She made a full confession after her arrest on June 18 last year but later withdrew it, the court was told.

Mr Morgan said that her claims had cost Gloucestershire police hundreds of hours of their time.

He said: ''A woman in her 50s making allegations of rape and kidnap is going to be investigated and quite rightly so.

''The defendant made a series of statements orally and in writing that resulted in a massive police investigation.''

After one such statement, police sent a technician to her house to install various security measures including a covert camera in front of her house.

Mr Morgan said: ''A covert camera was placed to face the front of her property.

''Sadly for her, that was her undoing because it proved conclusively that she had lied when she said she was kidnapped from her home and raped on June 1.''

The trial, which opened on Friday, January 8 continues.