A Miss Universe finalist was punched in the head at least 30 times and sustained bites that turned “septic” in an attack by her ex-partner, a court has heard.

Model and influencer Chloe Othen, 33, was also strangled and dragged along the floor by her hair by Ricky Lawrence, 32, the Nightingale Crown Court in Holborn, central London, was told on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Sheilagh Davies said Lawrence, of Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, west London, beat Ms Othen, took her phone and stopped her from leaving his flat, during an alleged attack in October 2022.

“As she got up to leave, Ricky Lawrence had grabbed her phone out of her hand and refused to give it back. He then lashed out and punched her,” Ms Davies said.

“He was fighting her, biting her multiple times all over her body.”

Ms Othen and Lawrence’s six-month relationship ended in May 2022 but she told the court the pair were “on and off” after that time and she had last seen Lawrence “a few days” before the alleged assault.

Bora Guccuk, who had begun a relationship with Ms Othen at the time, had tried to call her phone in the flat, but Lawrence answered and threatened him, saying he would “kill him”, the court heard.

Ms Othen ran out of the flat after the attack, calling Mr Guccuk for help, before meeting him and a friend at the Berkeley Hotel, also in Knightsbridge.

She went to A&E on 16 October, where her injuries were documented, and it was shown that one of the bite marks on her neck “turned septic”, the prosecutor said.

‘Manic’ messages exchanged before alleged attack

Ms Othen said she decided to go to Lawrence’s apartment in the early hours of 15 October after she had been at an event as the defendant became “aggressive” by text, adding: “I thought I’d let him calm down and then go over there and see him.”

In WhatsApp messages shown in court, exchanged between Ms Othen and Lawrence from 4.17am to 5.35am on 15 October, Lawrence said: “You f***** up tonight. Watch what I do now you silly c***.”

Another message said: “I’ll do anything in my power to f*** up the rest of your life. Screenshot that.”

Ms Othen said she thought Lawrence’s behaviour was “manic”, but that receiving abusive messages from him was “quite normal”.

She said she arrived at his flat at 5.35am after getting a taxi from Kensington.

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‘I genuinely thought he was going to kill me’

Asked about Lawrence’s mood when she arrived, Ms Othen said he was “weirdly calm”.

“Ricky was quite strange when I walked in. Within five, 10 minutes, I wanted to leave,” she said.

“I genuinely thought he was going to kill me.”

Ms Othen said Lawrence “punched me about 30 times in the head and the ear” for “about an hour and a half”, after taking her phone away from her.

She said he also “pulled me up and down from the kitchen to the bedroom” by her hair before he “got two kitchen knives from his bedroom and chased me round the dining room”.

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Lawrence was arrested at his flat and provided a prepared statement to police in which he said he had “repeatedly asked Chloe to leave but she continued to shout and scream” and he had “sustained a lengthy scratch along my abdomen”, the court heard.

The jury was shown two sets of photographs, one taken by police on 15 October, and more taken the following day, which showed marks and bruising on Ms Othen’s face, neck, elbow, inner thigh, right leg and knee.

Ms Othen said she had a mild cauliflower ear and had to get her jaw unlocked, and had to wear a neck brace from being strangled.

Lawrence, who denies a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, spoke only to confirm his name at Tuesday’s court hearing.

The trial continues.

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