A 26-YEAR-OLD man on trial for attacking his ex-girlfriend has admitted threatening to choke her but denied physically assaulting her.
Andre Correia was giving evidence on the second day of his trial in the Royal Court for domestic abuse of his 20-year-old former partner.
He is accused of threatening to kill her with a hammer and saying he wanted to squeeze her neck “until she was purple”.
He is also said to have pushed her, slapped her, spat in her face and damaged furniture in her flat. He denies the charge of domestic abuse.
The alleged abuse was said to have begun in November last year.
Answering questions from Advocate Ian Jones, defending, Mr Correia said: “At the time my father had cancer. He started getting really, really ill. Life was a little bit bad.”
Advocate Jones questioned him about the threat to choke the woman until she turned purple, asking: “Were you actually going to do it?”
He said: “No, I was just frustrated. I wouldn’t have the courage to do something like that.”
Advocate Jones asked in separate questions whether he had ever slapped, spat at or physically hurt the woman.
Each time he replied: “No.”
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said to him: “Your response to frustration was to throttle your partner?”
He said: “I admit it was wrong to say that.”
Referring to a message Mr Correia had sent the woman, she asked: “You said: ‘I’m not warning you again, I’ve reached my limit.’ You are threatening her, aren’t you?”
He said: “No, I was just getting fed up.”
The trial is expected to conclude today.
Commissioner Sir William Bailhache is presiding while Jurats Jane Ronge and Andrew Cornish are sitting.
