The lawyer representing a man accused of assaulting a woman argued in court yesterday that she was the aggressor, claiming she “kicked him in the testicles” and “slapped him in the face”.
Alexander Lindley Reid (42) is on trial in the Royal Court this week, facing three counts of grave and criminal assault against one woman.
Giving evidence in court yesterday, the woman described one of the alleged attacks.
“I felt it [the knife] in my eye,” she said.
“He dragged me like a ragdoll to the door and tried to chuck me out the door.”
But Advocate Olaf Blakeley, defending, told her that her claims were made up.
“You thought Mr Reid was laughing at you, didn’t you?” he asked.
“You started accusing him of being unfaithful.”
He added: “You kicked him in the testicles [and] slapped him in the face.”
The woman denied all of the advocate’s allegations.
Advocate Blakeley also played an audio recording made earlier in the relationship, in which he said the woman can be heard slapping Mr Reid.
The court also heard from two of the woman’s previous partners who claimed that she had a problem with alcohol.
One former partner also told that court that the woman had stabbed him in the face with a steak knife and, during different arguments, thrown a frying pan and a microwave at him.
He described how their relationship had turned “violent”.
When Crown Advocate Hall put to him that “it takes two to tango”, he said: “I don’t disagree with that, but she always started it.
“I’m quite a peaceful person, I don’t like drama or conflict.”
Another former partner claimed the woman had grabbed him by the neck.
But Crown Advocate Christina Hall, prosecuting, described the woman as “vulnerable” in her opening speech, arguing that Mr Reid had taken advantage of her vulnerability.
