A 37-YEAR-OLD woman accused of lunging at a man with a knife and wounding his leg claimed she had not intended to hurt him – but only to stop him from filming her on his mobile phone.
Nilza Vieira was giving evidence on the first day of an Assize jury trial in the Royal Court. She denies one charge of grave and criminal assault.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said the alleged attack took place at 2am on 25 November last year.
The jury of six men and six women were shown part of the video the man had recorded, in which Ms Vieira is seen to come towards him with the knife in her hand.
The alleged victim had shown the video to police officers shortly afterwards and Ms Vieira was arrested later that day.
She was interviewed by States police officers that afternoon and excerpts from her interview were read in court.
She said that his shouting had woken her up, and she was cutting a slice of cake when the alleged victim was filming her and shouting abuse at her.
“He said: ‘You are crazy, you need to go for treatment,’” she said in the interview.
“I had a knife in my hand and went into the kitchen to cut the cake. My intention was to hit the phone to stop him recording. Accidentally the knife did scratch his leg.”
She added: “I’m not an aggressive person. I was very angry.”
The man sustained a wound to his upper right thigh but refused to see a police doctor.
Advocate Rui Tremoceiro, defending, asked investigating officer PC Benedict Casson: “Did the man want to make a complaint?”
PC Casson confirmed: “No.”
The trial is expected to last two more days.
