A MAN wept in court yesterday as he told how a neighbour who ‘seemed like the devil’ tried to ‘break his wife’s neck’ as they were allegedly attacked in their own home.
The Islander was giving evidence in the second day of the Assize jury trial of Shawn Le Lay, who is accused of assaulting the man and his wife, breaking their furniture and biting a police officer on the leg after being arrested.
The 51-year-old denies three charges of grave and criminal assault and one of malicious damage.
Speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, the man explained that he was caretaker of the block of flats in St Helier where he and Mr Le Lay lived.
He knew the defendant by sight but told jurors in the Royal Court: ‘I didn’t know the type of person he was.’
He said that on the afternoon of 6 August last year there had been a dispute about a package delivered to Mr Le Lay.
The caretaker said he left it outside Mr Le Lay’s door but when the defendant did not find it he claimed someone must have stolen it, jurors heard.
Mr Le Lay then complained about a letter he had received ordering him to move out of his flat within three months, the alleged victim said.
The defendant wanted the phone number of the flats’ manager, according to the caretaker, who had been told not to give out the number.
The alleged victim said: ‘He said if he saw the manager he would throw her out of a window. He spoke in a very rough voice.
‘He then gave me a punch near the left temple. I was bleeding and it affected my glasses.’
The caretaker then grabbed his horse-riding whip as Mr Le Lay allegedly continued the assault, the court heard.
He said: ‘He pulled it off me. He pushed me onto the sofa and hit me with it on my back.
‘Then he started punching me in the head. He was holding me down with his left arm and punching me with his right arm.’
The caretaker began to weep as he continued: ‘He tried to break my wife’s neck. He was twisting it. Then he grabbed my wife’s breast and started twisting it. She was screaming and telling him to stop.’
He added: ‘He seemed like the devil. You could see he wasn’t a normal person. He looked like a monster.’
The alleged female victim said on Tuesday that she was so scared she thought she was going to die when Mr Le Lay allegedly twisted her head round, stating in her police statement: ‘I’d never felt so much fear before.’
Commissioner Julian ClydeSmith was presiding, with the trial continuing in Mr Le Lay’s absence as he has declined to attend.
The case is due to resume on Monday.
