City woman's attack one of three

Nicola Horlick threw her diamond ring into a bush

Gunmen who tried to rob City businesswoman Nicola Horlick near her west London home are thought to have struck twice more within 15 minutes.

The mother-of-five was hit with a pistol in South Kensington on Monday.

She told the scooter-riding robbers she had dropped a diamond ring so she could pretend to look for it then escape. The men then fled empty handed.

Moments earlier the thieves stole money from a woman in a nearby street. After attacking Ms Horlick they robbed a man.

One of the two men, who both wore helmets, got off the scooter outside Ms Horlick's house and approached her just after 2100 BST.

The police said I should just have handed everything over, that it was very dangerous, but I never felt that I was going to die Nicola Horlick

"He got off the bike, came over and said 'Lady, give me your jewellery, I have got a gun'. I then realised there was a gun stuck in my stomach."

"I didn't say anything so he said 'Lady, did you hear what I said? Give me your jewellery'. It was just like a stand-off - he kept asking the same thing over and over again," Ms Horlick said.

The man threatened to kill her, but Ms Horlick said she told him that would be stupid because he would face life in prison. He then threatened to hit her with the gun.

"I said 'Well fine, hit me', then he smashed this gun into the side of my head. With his other hand he hit me on the forehead.

Refused hospital treatment

"He then pinned me on the ground. He had his arms on my chest and was holding me down. He then said 'Give me that ring'."

It was then she pretended she had dropped the ring and helped her assailant look for it.

"The police said I should just have handed everything over, that it was very dangerous, but I never felt that I was going to die," Ms Horlick said.

An ambulance was called but Ms Horlick refused to go to hospital.

Ms Horlick, a former investment fund manager at SG Asset Management originally from Merseyside, shot to fame when she fought a high profile campaign to win her job back at fund manager Deutsche Morgan Grenfell.