The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Soldier who cut throat of ex-girlfriend jailed for life
Court: He will serve at least 22 years
An obsessed soldier who stalked then murdered his former girlfriend by slashing her neck in an act of “utter barbarism” has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years.
Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon broke into Alice Ruggles’s Gateshead flat last October and cut her throat from ear to ear after he found out she had found happiness with another man.
The 26-year-old had driven 120 miles from his barracks near Edinburgh to confront Miss Ruggles and grabbed a long, sharp carving knife cutting through to her spine.
He did not react when a jury at Newcastle Crown Court convicted him of murder after they took less than two hours to dismiss his fanciful story that she had accidentally stabbed herself while lunging at him.
Judge Paul Sloan QC said: “Precisely what happened once you were in the flat only you now know, but you have never had the decency to say.”
Miss Ruggles, 24, who worked for Sky in Newcastle and came from Leicestershire, tried to lock herself in the bathroom but Dhillon kicked it down.
At 6ft 1in and 12-and-ahalf stone the 2 Scots signaller who was training for the Special Reconnaissance
“Not a shred of remorse have you shown from first to last”
Regiment was nearly a foot taller and three stone heavier than his victim.
The judge said: “You were pinning her down, probably by kneeling on her back, and in an act of utter barbarism you slashed her throat with a knife, slashed her at least six times, causing catastrophic injuries.”
Dhillon fled without dialling 999 but remembered to take her phone and the murder weapon, disposing of them on the way back to Edinburgh.
Dhillon told a series of lies to talk his way out of trouble, and in his defence made a series of accusations about the woman he supposedly loved.
Judge Sloan said: “Not a shred of remorse have you shown from first to last, indeed you were concentrating so hard on getting your story right when giving evidence, you forgot even to shed a crocodile tear.”
The murder was aggravated by the way Dhillon had made Miss Ruggles, described as normally fun-loving and a “ray of sunshine”, miserable over the last weeks of her life.
Dhillon, who had been serially unfaithful, knocked on her door at night and terrified her by tapping on her window and leaving flowers and chocolates on the sill.
That led her to complain to the police and gain an official PIN warning, telling him to leave her alone, which he ignored.