A MAN accused of attacking a woman in her home and stealing her medication has claimed she gave him the pills voluntarily.
Leon David Chevalier (44) was giving evidence on the second day of his trial at the Royal Court – he denies charges of grave and criminal assault, and theft.
On the first day of the trial, the alleged victim said the defendant had come to her flat in the early hours of 11 June last year.
She told the jury Mr Chevalier had knocked her off her feet twice by swiping her legs with his, had punched her in the right breast and had grabbed her neck with both hands, before leaving with her prescribed medication.
The police later found the medication in his home. But Mr Chevalier denies attacking her and says that the woman urged him to take the pills.
Answering questions from Advocate David Steenson, defending, he said: “She went to my bag and put various things in it. I wasn’t sure what they were. I didn’t check.”
He added: “She went to the bathroom and came back with a handful of pills, and said: ‘Take these.’ So I took them.”
He said he had suffered a bad leg injury while playing sport, so when asked if he had knocked her over with his leg, he said: “Not possible, because of the injury.”
And he added: “I’ve never hit a woman and I never would.”
The court heard from medical examiner Dr Vis Reddy, who checked the woman later on the day of the alleged incident and confirmed that her bruises and grazes could have been caused by an assault.
Advocate Steenson said: “They were not recent grazes or scratches. They didn’t happen a matter of hours before the examination.”
The doctor replied: “The grazes had not healed.”
The advocate asked: “Could the injuries be sustained by just falling over?” The witness replied: “The bruise that could not be caused by falling over is the bruise to her neck.”
The trial is expected to conclude tomorrow.
