Teacher broke lover’s jaw for revealing their lesbian trysts
A TEACHER broke the jaw of her secret lesbian lover because she did not want the woman to tell her parents she was gay, a court heard yesterday.
Alexa Collier, 26, had been in a samesex romance with Nicola Lees but had kept her sexuality secret from her family. She allegedly flew into a violent rage when Miss Lees, 28, became fed up with their clandestine relationship and turned up at Miss Collier’s home to reveal the truth to her mother Gill.
A row broke out, with 53-year-old Mrs Collier calling Miss Lees a “sl-t”, a “sl-g” and a “tramp”.
But when the victim retorted “I’m a tramp? Your daughter was in a hotel with me s------g”, Miss Collier punched Miss Lees in the face with such force that it broke her jaw. Miss Lees required surgery using screws and a metal plate, the court heard.
The fight occurred in July last year after the couple had split up, though they were continuing to meet for trysts in hotel rooms, Minshull Street Crown
Court in Manchester was told.
Miss Lees said: “Alexa was telling me not to tell her mum and we were keeping it a secret. She was scared of coming out to her parents. “If she didn’t want a relationship, why was she with me for three years and still seeing me for a year? Alexa was still seeing me, still texting me and going to hotel rooms. Clearly she was just doing it to keep me there hanging on.” The court heard how Miss Lees believed Miss Collier was “playing with her emotions” and told her she no longer wanted to be “messed about”.
But Miss Collier later posted messages on Snapchat and Instagram which Miss Lees perceived as an attempt to “wind her up”. Miss Lees decided to visit her lover’s family home in Chadderton, near Oldham. Miss Lees told the jury: “I went to her house with the intention to sort everything out and speak to her mum, and get out what we had been doing for many years. My aim of going round was to put everything straight with her mum.
“When I was told to go away, her mum ran out of the house and started calling me a sl--t, sl-g and tramp, and said ‘get away from my house’.
‘I was shouting that it was all her mother’s fault that the relationship broke down’
“I was shouting that it was all her mother’s fault that the relationship broke down and she forced us to split up. I did say if I was that much of a tramp and a sl-t, why was your daughter sleeping with me for the last week?
“The relationship wasn’t entirely over – she kept telling me she loved me and would always love me.
“The injury I sustained was a fractured jaw, which the hospital had to operate on. I couldn’t physically move when it happened. I couldn’t physically speak because it was sore. I was just mumbling words.”
David Bentley, prosecuting, said: “The defendant’s parents did not know she was in a relationship with another woman, although some of their friends knew. It seems that the relationship started to fail as a result of Nicola’s desire for it to become less secretive.”
Miss Lees attended North Manchester General Hospital, where her face was X-rayed and she underwent surgery to have a metal plate and three screws fitted to her lower jaw, which held her lower teeth in place.
Miss Collier denies causing grievous bodily harm. The trial continues.