Squaddie ‘messaged Tinder girl then sliced ex’s throat’
a SOLDIER accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend by slashing her throat was messaging a potential date minutes before the killing, a court heard yesterday.
Lance Corporal Trimaan Dhillon was said to be outside victim alice Ruggles’s flat when he arranged to meet a woman he met on Tinder and told her that ‘i should be done here in 20 to 30 minutes’.
Dhillon, 26, was sitting in his car while sending messages to Jasmine Danby, 25, telling her that ‘i can drive to you’, it was claimed.
The signaller with the Royal Highland Fusiliers (2 Scots) had matched with Miss Danby, from Durham, on dating app Tinder.
The pair were chatting via Whatsapp when he arrived at Miss Ruggles’s home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
He had travelled there from Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik, Midlothian.
it is alleged that after he sent his messages to Miss Danby – including asking her ‘how long does it take to get from Newcastle to yours?’ – he climbed through Miss Ruggles’s window.
He is accused of killing the university graduate with six strokes of a kitchen knife, while holding her head over the shower.
The court previously heard that days before she died in October last year, Miss Ruggles, 24, who worked for Sky UK in Newcastle, had told police she was ‘terrified’ of her ‘stalker’ former boyfriend.
She also told her sister that she feared officers would take her seriously only ‘once he has stabbed me’.
The court heard yesterday that Dhillon had become obsessed with his ex’s blossoming relationship with army officer Lieutenant Mike James. Miss Ruggles had been exchanging messages with him and making plans to go on a date just before she died.
Lieutenant James – from Watford, Hertfordshire, but stationed in Germany with the Royal Engineers – said they had been growing close and were excited about spending ‘quality time together that weekend’.
in a statement read out at court, he spoke of his surprise that Miss Ruggles had stopped messaging him midway through their conversation.
He said that although his messages were being delivered to her phone, she was not responding.
in his statement, Lieutenant James told the court she had confided in him about Dhillon’s obsessive behaviour.
She told him how the soldier had hacked her Facebook, Whatsapp and email messages and had been driving from his barracks in Scotland to stalk her.
Dhillon also contacted Lieutenant James through a Facebook message, telling him: ‘She is playing us, she is still in love with me.’
He added: ‘Could you please tell me where you guys stand, i feel pretty gutted knowing that she says she loves me but is seeing you too.’
a voicemail left by Dhillon on Miss Ruggles’s phone in the days leading up to her death was also played to the court.
in the rambling message, he said: ‘i don’t want to kill you, i am not intending to kill you, that is all i want to say, that i don’t want to kill you, that is why i brought you flowers and chocolates and just walked away. i hope you have a good night.’ Dhillon denies murder. The trial at Newcastle Crown Court continues.
‘I don’t want to kill you’