If you’re that confident I murdered Alice, why not give me a lie detector?
QC accuses squaddie of slashing ex’s throat after driving 127 miles
A SOLDIER accused of stalking and murdering his ex-girlfriend offered yesterday to take a lie detector to prove he did not slash her throat.
Trimaan Dhillon, 26, drove 127 miles to Tyneside from Edinburgh despite a restraining order banning any contact with Alice Ruggles.
But he denies breaking into her flat and cutting her throat – claiming she stabbed herself during a struggle.
Prosecutor Richard Wright QC told him yesterday at his trial: “It ended with you taking that knife across her throat six times, cutting through all the tissue, cutting her voice box and notching her spine.”
Royal Regiment of Scotland signaller Dhillon replied: “If you are 100 per cent sure that I deliberately sliced her throat, if you are that confident why don’t you give me a lie detector test sir?”
Judge Paul Sloan QC intervened to say: “That is not how we conduct proceedings.”
Mr Wright questioned why a professional soldier such as Dhillon could not have taken the knife from 5ft 2in, 9st Alice, 24.
Mr Wright said: “She was 5ft 2in, you are 6ft 1in, training for the special reconnaisance regiment which is part of the SAS.
“She is 9st, you are a big lad, but you could not shake the knife out of her hand?” Dhillon said: “In Alice’s case, it was not like fighting someone I did not have feelings for.
“If you are fighting someone who is a threat, then you can do whatever you want. But I had to be careful what I was doing.”
Mr Wright added: “But you kept her in a head lock until she lost consciousness?”
Dhillon replied: “She did not lose consciousness straight away.”
The jury at Newcastle crown court has been told a neighbour heard screaming from Alice’s flat in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, on the evening of October 12 last year, shortly before Alice died.
Dhillon told the jury he climbed through a bedroom window to retrieve two T-shirts and a pair of trousers, three months after they split up.
He said he could not explain all her injuries and what had happened during their struggle.
He told how he had heard the knife “touch the bone” when she fell forward with it in her hand and it pierced her neck. Alice bled to death. Dhillon did not call for police or an ambulance, the jury heard. He went to Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik, Midlothian, but was arrested within minutes by military police.
The prosecution say Dhillon killed Alice before taking her phone and fleeing with the weapon, which has not been found.
Dhillon denies murder. The trial continues.
It ended with you taking that knife across her throat six times
RICHARD WRIGHT QC