Murder victim’s prophecy: Police will only bother af ter I’m stabbed
‘I’m terrified of his actions’ ‘Bizarre and very creepy’
A WOMAN told police she was ‘terrified’ of her ‘stalker’ former boyfriend only days before her throat was cut from ear to ear, a court heard.
Alice Ruggles also told her sister that she feared officers would only take her seriously ‘once he has stabbed me’.
The 24-year-old bled to death and was found lifeless in her bathroom last October.
She had reported Trimaan ‘Harry’ Dhillon, 26 – who denies murder – to police ten days earlier.
Dhillon – a Lance Corporal and signaller with the Royal Highland Fusiliers – ignored an official warning to cut contact and posted her a parcel.
Miss Ruggles, of Gateshead, told Northumbria Police but while their response to an initial complaint had been ‘brilliant’, she was unhappy with them after her second call, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Her sister Emma, a British Army Officer, told the court in a statement that she had advised her sibling to call the police and was informed she had already done so.
Sky employee Miss Ruggles told her sister: ‘They will f ***** g respond once he has f ***** g stabbed me.’
The court heard Dhillon, who was born in India and based at Glencorse Barracks near Penicuik, Midlothian, had embarked on an intense relationship with Miss Ruggles after meeting her over the internet while he was serving in Afghanistan.
She split with him after she discovered he had been messaging other women on dating app Tinder, jurors were told.
Miss Ruggles said she was frightened when he travelled to Tyneside and repeatedly knocked on her door late at night, then tapped on her bedroom window and left flowers and chocolates on the sill.
The court heard a phone message he left her, repeatedly saying he did not want to kill her.
Miss Ruggles, who grew up in Leicestershire and stayed in Newcastle after studying at Northumbria University, made a police statement on October 2 in which she said he sounded ‘crazy’ on voicemails.
She said: ‘I feel harassed, alarmed and distressed by this male. I want him to leave me alone. I want nothing more to do with him. I am terrified of his actions. I am being stalked and I want it to stop. I don’t feel safe in my own home.’
The court heard Dhillon received an official police warning to stay away from her.
A friend of Dhillon and Miss Ruggles told the jury that while the pair were dating, the accused made her feel self-conscious.
Gen Crozier said: ‘He said some stuff about the size of her nose, hair on her forearms. He made her feel self-conscious – not the person she really was.’
Miss Crozier also said Miss Ruggles told her that on her first date with Dhillon, he had claimed a waitress was ‘trying to hit on him’. She later told Miss Crozier she thought he had been trying to put her on edge.
The court also heard from a university friend of Dhillon that he had been engaged and the relationship ended when he was in India.
Business psychologist Serena Murphy, who met him at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University, told the jury he was ‘over-emotional’ when a previous, short relationship ended.
Meanwhile, Miss Ruggles’s mother, Susan Hills, said in a statement: ‘[Dhillon] seemed to say all the things he thought we wanted to hear from him.
‘He did come across as rather insincere.’
After Miss Ruggles broke up with him, Dhillon messaged her mother on Facebook, calling her ‘mum’ and begging for her help in reuniting them, the court heard.
Mother-of-four Miss Hills said she found it ‘bizarre’, ‘inappropriate’ and ‘very creepy’.
The trial continues.