The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Court is told that accused attacked former partners
Keith Rizzo denies murdering his girlfriend at her flat in Brechin last year
An Angus man accused of choking and stabbing his partner to death also attacked an ex-girlfriend on three separate occasions, a court heard yesterday.
Keith Rizzo went on trial at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, accused of choking and stabbing his partner to death.
Rizzo, 23, allegedly murdered his then girlfriend Neomi Smith, also 23, at her flat in Brechin on June 9 last year.
Prosecutors claim he attacked the Aberdonian, compressing her neck and restricting her breathing.
Rizzo, of Brechin, is then said to have repeatedly struck the care worker on the head and body with knives.
Rizzo, who denies all charges, is also accused of assaulting three former partners and threatening another some time between December 2014 and May 2019.
The first Crown witness to be called in the case was 23-year-old Mary Saville, who was in an on-off relationship with Rizzo between 2014 and 2017. The support worker, who lives in Aberdeen, said she was attacked by him on three separate occasions.
Ms Saville said: “The first occurred while we were living together at his mum’s flat on Church Street in Brechin in 2014.
“We had an argument at around midday in his bedroom and I was pushed in the chest by him into a sliding glass mirror, which smashed.”
She said Rizzo attacked her again at her mother’s flat on Montrose Street, Brechin, in 2015.
She said he “became violent” after they had both been drinking and pushed her up against the living room door, compressing her neck.
She told the court that, after she fell to the floor, she was then kicked.
In the third incident, at her flat in Aberdeen in 2016, Ms Saville said Rizzo “became violent” after she discovered a message on his phone from a female.
She said Rizzo grabbed her and she slipped, hitting her head against a yale lock.
He was very nasty and manipulative. He tried to belittle me and make me feel like I was nothing. MURRON WALLACE
She then says she escaped from the flat into the communal hallway where a neighbour called the police.
She said she ended the relationship after the incident.
Another former partner, Murron Wallace, 19, said Rizzo was regularly verbally abusive and called her “every name you could ever think of”.
She said: “He was very nasty and manipulative.
“He tried to belittle me and make me feel like I was nothing. He called me a bitch, a slag and a c***.
“I can’t remember how many times but more than once.
“It was very intimidating.
“He sent me horrible messages after I ended the relationship.
“He followed me twice. I was never in danger but I felt unsafe.”
Rizzo, who is represented by Donald Findlay QC, also denies an accusation that he assaulted Miss Smith to her injury and danger of life between May 5 and June 8 2019.
The trial before Lady Rae continues.