Alice despaired of police response to her ex

● Woman told sister officers would only respond once she had been stabbed

A woman who bled to death after her throat was cut from ear to ear had told her sister police would only respond once her former boyfriend had stabbed her, a court has heard.

Alice Ruggles, 24, had first reported Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon to police ten days before she was found lifeless in the bathroom of her flat in Gateshead last October.

He ignored an official warning to cease contact and sent his ex a parcel through the post.

She informed Northumbria Police, Newcastle Crown Court heard yesterday, but while the initial response to her first complaint was “brilliant”, she was unhappy with what happened following the second call.

In a statement, her sister Emma, a British Army officer, told the court she advised Ms Ruggles to contact the police, but she replied she already had.

The statement said the Sky employee told her sister: “They will f ****** respond once he has f ****** stabbed me.”

Dhillon, a signaller with the 2 Scots, denies murder. The court heard how Dhillon, who was born in India, started an intense relationship over the internet with Ms Ruggles while he was serving in Afghanistan.

She split with him after she found out he had been messaging other women on the dating site Tinder, jurors were told.

She said she was frightened when he travelled to Tyneside from his barracks near Edinburgh 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 has heard a phone message he then left her, repeatedly saying he did not want to kill her.

Ms Ruggles, who grew up in Leicestershire and stayed in Newcastle after studying at Northumbria University, made a police statement on 2 October in which she said he sounded “crazy” on voicemails, and described him as obsessed.

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.”

She said it was affecting her concentration and work, adding: “I don’t feel safe in my own home.”

The case continues.