A soldier accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend told a court she stabbed herself in the neck, as she lunged at him with a carving knife at the same moment he tried to disarm her.
Lance Corporal Trimaan "Harry" Dhillon described a lengthy struggle through Alice Ruggles' Gateshead flat in October, that ended with her bleeding to death and him "panicking" rather than ringing 999.
The 26-year-old, a signaller with the 2 Scots, is on trial at Newcastle Crown Court and denies murdering his ex after he turned up at her home despite her getting an official police warning telling him to stay away.
Dhillon said he climbed into her ground-floor flat through a bedroom window before he saw Miss Ruggles in the living room and that she had grabbed a carving knife.
The Edinburgh-based soldier, who had recently gone through a course in Hereford to join the special forces, said he managed to get her in a headlock and pushed her through the kitchen and into the bathroom.
His intention was to lock her in and run away, he told the court.
Miss Ruggles, who was 24, from Leicestershire and worked for Sky in Newcastle, dropped the knife and fell unconscious on the floor, Dhillon said.
She later regained consciousness, he said, and she asked: "Is this really happening?"
He told the jury: "My reply was 'I don't know, please don't speak'."
Later, as they sat in the bathroom, Dhillon claims Miss Ruggles became "infuriated" when he told her he was going to see another woman.
The jury has heard he tried to set up a date as he waited outside Miss Ruggles' flat before she came home that evening.
Dhillon claimed she picked up the knife again but he managed to stop her stabbing him.
He said the knife scratched her neck as he elbowed her to the head.
Miss Ruggles ended up beneath the basin as he sat on the toilet, he said, before she came at him again.
Asked again why he did not summon the emergency services, Dhillon said: "If I am honest, I initially wanted to get out of the situation.
"I didn't know how to react to it.
"I panicked and I ran away."
He said he got in his car and took the Coldstream route to Edinburgh as he considered "driving off one of these back roads, off the hill".
The jury has heard he was arrested after he got back to barracks.
The trial continues on Friday morning.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article