Soldier ‘slit ex’s throat when she refused to take him back’
a JealOUS soldier murdered his ex-girlfriend by slitting her throat ‘from ear to ear’ after she rejected him, a court heard yesterday.
Trimaan ‘ Harry’ Dhillon allegedly stalked alice Ruggles, 24, in attempts to win her back after she begun a relationship with another soldier.
But when the university graduate refused, the 26- year- old broke into her flat and slashed her throat six times ‘ear to ear’ with a kitchen knife, a jury at newcastle Crown Court heard.
In the days before her death, Miss Ruggles, who worked for Sky, had made a series of phone calls to police accusing Dhillon of harassment.
The lance corporal had driven from his barracks in edinburgh to her flat in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, twice. On the second occasion he left her terrified by knocking on her bedroom window at night to leave Ferrero Rocher chocolates and flowers.
Police issued a formal warning but it was just two days after her Accused: Trimaan Dhillon third call to police that she was brutally killed in her bathroom.
Prosecutor Richard Wright QC said: ‘There was so much blood in the shower tray that alice must have had her throat cut from behind. She then got to her knees and possibly to her feet before collapsing and dying in the doorway.’
Her body was found by her flat- mate, who made a harrowing 999 call that was played to the court. She named Dhillon as a suspect for the attack during her call. She said Miss Ruggles had ‘been going out with a complete psychopath.’
Mr Wright told the court how Miss Ruggles’ family and friends had become concerned for her during her nine-month relationship with Dhillon, who they described as an ‘obsessive, jealous and manipulative man’.
She broke up with him in July last year after she suspected he was cheating with other women he met through dating apps.
Dhillon, a signaller with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was said to have responded with a campaign of harassment in which he hacked into her social media accounts, sent letters to her and her family and even threatened to release sexually compromising photos, which he kept in a file named ‘tramp’.
On October 7 he breached a police warning not to contact her, but officers left Miss Ruggles to decide if he should be arrested. She declined but three days later Dhillon sent a poem declaring his undying love and also sent a pleading message to her mother.
Miss Ruggles informed police but on October 12 Dhillon drove to her flat for a third time and waited for her to come home from work before launching the attack, it is claimed.
Mr Wright said Miss Ruggles was a ‘lively, fun-loving girl’ whose personality changed as a consequence of her relationship with Dhillon. ‘She was withdrawn, isolated, deeply troubled by his behaviour after she ended their relationship,’ he said.
Dhillon denies murder. The case continues.
‘A complete psychopath’