A WOMAN has described how a man held a cutlery knife up to her face and threatened to gouge her eyes out.
Alexander Lindley Reid (42) denies four charges of grave and criminal assault, all of which he is alleged to have carried out against one woman.
The jury in a Royal Court trial, which opened this week, heard how she was vulnerable and that he had preyed on her because of her vulnerability.
Crown Advocate Christina Hall, prosecuting, described how during several of the alleged assaults, Mr Reid grabbed the woman by the neck and strangled her.
During the first incident, she said, “the defendant put his hand around the complainant’s throat and began to squeeze her throat until she felt she could not breathe”.
Two attacks were said to have taken place on the same night, at a hotel, she said, adding that Mr Reid had drunk alcohol before the attacks.
During the first of the two alleged assaults, he grabbed her by the neck and by the nose ring, the court heard.
The court was told the woman then went to sleep, but awoke to find Mr Reid “still mumbling to himself”.
Advocate Hall said: “The defendant then attacked the complainant, threatening to gouge her eyes out with a cutlery knife.”
Some weeks later, Advocate Hall said the defendant again grabbed the woman by the neck, “pinning her up against the wall”, before throwing her to the ground.
The complainant then fled and called 999.
Appearing in court yesterday, the alleged victim described Mr Reid as a “stern” man.
She said: “You could see the anger in his eyes.”
She described how on one occasion, he had “flipped” suddenly before assaulting her.
At the hotel, she said, she had gone to bed and woken up to see the defendant, who was “mad because [she] was asleep”.
She described how he threatened her: “He had a knife and put it straight up to my eyes and said he was going to gouge out my eyes.”
He then tried to kick her out of the hotel room, she said.
After he had left, he claimed he could not get a taxi and convinced her to let him come back, saying he would not assault her again, the court heard.
Mr Reid, represented by Advocate Olaf Blakeley, argues that he acted in self-defence and claims that the incident in the hotel did not happen as the woman recalled.
The Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, is presiding.
The jury trial is due to last four days, with witnesses including hotel staff and neighbours.
