COULD ALICE’S DEATH HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?
Court hears concerns were ‘palmed off’ by police just five days before her murder
ALLEGED murder victim Alice Ruggles’ flatmate told how she found her friend dead in a pool of blood at their home – just five days after she was “palmed off ” by police over concerns about her ex.
Maxine McGill said Trimaan Dhillon had been “controlling, manipulative and possessive” with Alice, who she claimed feared he would kill her.
She told the court the 24-yearold was left “frozen in fear” after Dhillon, known as Harry, turned up one night and left Ferrero Rocher and flowers on her outside window sill.
She said Alice told her she feared Dhillon would kill her and phoned police reporting her concerns. When Alice rang police again, she told Maxine she felt “palmed off” and that it was a waste of time.
Five days later, the Northumbria University graduate was dead.
On October 12, Maxine was going to her boyfriend’s home in Durham but called home after work for her mobile phone.
She found the flat locked and couldn’t get any response from Alice so she climbed through a window. Maxine said, as she looked at her phone, she noticed Alice lying on the bathroom floor.
“It stopped me in my tracks, I just ran to her,” she said.
“The first thing I noticed was the amount of blood everywhere.
“For a split second I thought she’d fallen and hurt her head.
“The amount of blood that was there, the position Alice was lying in. I knew it had not been a fall.
“I knew when I seen her she was dead.”
Prosecutors say Dhillon slit Alice’s throat.
Maxine said she found a “tribal style ornamental mask” on the floor of Alice’s bedroom, which had not been there that morning and she said a “very sharp” kitchen knife was missing from the flat.
She told jurors at Newcastle Crown Court about contacting the police: “She says she felt as if she was palmed off. She was asked the question ‘what do you want to do about it.’ She said ‘I don’t know, that’s why I’m phoning you.’ She was asked to get back in touch if she had any further contact.” Maxine, originally from Glasgow, first met Alice working at Sky, and Alice moved into her flat in Bensham, Gateshead, last June. She told jurors: “We got on very well. She was different from myself but had the most vibrant personality.” Asked about Dhillon, she said: “He tried too hard, he was overly nice, he almost creeped me out.” When quizzed about Dhillon and Alice’s relationship, Maxine said: “It was controlling, manipulative, possessive.” Maxine said Alice discovered Dhillon had been messaging other women and ended the relationship. Asked how he reacted, she said: “Sometimes he seemed really upset, crying, sad. Other times it was the opposite end of the scale – aggressive, possessive.” Maxine said Alice was scared Dhillon would carry out a threat to release sexual photographs of her. She said: “She became introvert, visibly shaking, anxiety, skinny, she lost a lot of weight, she was pale. She said she was frightened of him, she was scared of him.”
After Dhillon allegedly turned up on September 20 and left chocolates and flowers outside the flat, Maxine said: “She was frozen in fear, she didn’t know what to do.”
Fighting back tears, she added: “She said to me that morning she thinks Harry was going to kill her.”
Alice’s blood was found on the steering wheel of Dhillon’s car, forensic scientist Michelle Walton told the court, and DNA attributed to Dhillon was found under Alice’s fingernails. Blood attributed to Alice was also found in the letters of Dhillon’s Help for Heroes wristband, jurors were told.
Dhillon, 26, of Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland, denies murder and the trial continues.
She said to me that morning she thinks Harry was going to kill her
Maxine McGill