Teacher ‘broke jaw of lesbian lover for exposing affair to mother’
‘She was in a hotel with me’
A TEACHER broke her secret lesbian lover’s jaw after she turned up at her family home and revealed their affair to her mother, a court heard yesterday.
Alexa Collier, 26, had been seeing personal trainer Nicola Lees, 28, for three years but had hidden their relationship and her sexuality from her family.
She flew into a rage after Miss Lees, who had become fed up with the secrecy, arrived at Collier’s house and revealed the truth to her mother, it was alleged.
As an argument broke out on the doorstep, Collier’s 53-year old mother Gill called Miss Lees a ‘slut’, a ‘slag’ and a ‘tramp’, the court was told.
But Miss Lees replied: ‘I’m a tramp? Your daughter was in a hotel with me, s***ging me!’
The teacher then allegedly punched her ex-lover with such force it broke her jaw, which required surgery using screws and a metal plate.
The bust-up occurred in July last year after the couple had split up but still met up sometimes to spend the night in hotel rooms, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told.
Opening the case, prosecutor David Bentley QC said Miss Lees had wanted every- one to know they were a couple, adding: ‘It seems that the relationship started to fail as a result of Nicola’s desire for it to become less secretive.
‘Although the relationship had ended there was still contact between the two and it seems they spent time together in a hotel before the incident occurred.’
Miss Lees told the court: ‘Alexa was telling me not to tell her mum and we were keeping it as a secret. She was scared of coming out to her parents.’
She said she believed Collier was maintaining contact ‘to keep me there hanging on’ but felt the defendant was ‘playing with her emotions’. She said she no longer wanted to be ‘messed about’.
Collier later posted messages on mobile apps Snapchat and Instagram which Miss Lees saw as an attempt to ‘ wind her up’ and she decided to visit her lover’s family home in Chadderton, near Oldham.
‘I went to her house with the intention to sort everything out and speak to her mum and get out what we had been doing for many years,’ she said. ‘I was told to go away because she didn’t want me to tell her mum.’
Collier’s mother then came out the house. Mr Bentley said: ‘ The defendant’s mum came up close to Nicola telling her to stay away and calling her a “tramp”.
‘The complainant responded by saying, “You don’t know what’s been going on, do you know Alexa’s seeing me?” ’
At that point there was ‘pushing and shoving but no hitting’, the lawyer said.
Miss Lees walked towards her car and Collier followed. A neighbour intervened and stood between them.
Miss Lees admitted she shouted it was ‘all her mother’s fault that the relationship broke down and she forced us to split up’, adding: ‘I did say if I was that much of a slag why was your daugh- ter sleeping with me for the last week.’
Mr Bentley said the defendant’s mother shouted ‘get away from my door, you tramp’, to which Miss Lees made the comment about the couple ‘s***ging’ in a hotel.
‘As soon as she had said this the defendant leaned around her neighbour and punched the complainant to the left side of her face before walking back towards the house,’ the lawyer told the court.
Miss Lees, who lost feeling in her face, got into the car and went to North Manchester General Hospital, where she had an X-ray. She then underwent surgery to have a metal plate and three screws fitted to her lower jaw, which held her teeth in place.
Collier made no comment in police interviews. She denies causing grievous bodily harm. The trial continues.