Chloe Othen: Model 'doesn't feel safe in UK' after ex-boyfriend 'punched her 30 times', court told

A model and influencer who claims she was bitten and beaten by her ex-boyfriend has said she doesn't "feel safe in the UK".

Chloe Othen, 33, claims she was punched in the head 30 times, strangled and dragged along the floor by her hair by Ricky Lawrence.

Lawrence, 32, is also accused of biting Ms Othen, taking her phone and stopping her from leaving his flat in Knightsbridge, central London, after a row via text in the early hours of 15 October 2022.

After the Miss Universe finalist told a trial at Nightingale Crown Court in Holborn, central London, "I don't feel totally safe in the UK", Tony Wyatt, defending, asked why she would frequent Motcombs Belgravia, a restaurant about 100 yards from Lawrence's flat after the incident.

Ms Othen replied: "I went there because it's opposite my hairdressers, where I get my hair extensions, I'm allowed to have lunch wherever I want to have lunch, I didn't do anything wrong."

Mr Wyatt said: "You're regularly going to where you know you are going to bump into him."

The court was told that Lawrence, a businessman, and Ms Othen had been in a six-month relationship that ended in May 2022, and had still been sleeping together at the time of the alleged incident despite the model having a new boyfriend, Bora Guccuk.

During a heated cross-examination, the defence barrister claimed Lawrence did not attack Ms Othen, and instead asked if Mr Guccuk injured her after finding out about their tryst.

The model replied: "You're really clutching at straws here, it was Ricky Lawrence who did this to me, he's the only person who did this to me."

Mr Wyatt also suggested Ms Othen went to the flat drunk to tell Lawrence off because he was going to reveal their relationship to Mr Guccuk, which she denied.

'Premeditated video' shown to jury

Jurors were shown a video of the model pulling cushions off a sofa at around 6.07am, which Mr Wyatt claimed was her "intoxicated" and looking for her phone in Lawrence's flat on the morning of the alleged attack.

Ms Othen tearfully responded: "I know what happened that night, I know who abused me, it was Ricky Lawrence, I didn't make this up, I have no idea what this video is."

She added: "It's muffled to make me sound like that [intoxicated], he premeditated that because he knew he was going to beat the s*** out of me."

In messages sent to Ms Othen before the alleged attack, Lawrence wrote to her: "I'll do anything in my power to f*** up your life."

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Mr Wyatt claimed this was the defendant suggesting he would reveal their relationship, but Ms Othen said: "I feel stupid going there, I'm embarrassed, I think about this every night, how stupid I am.

"These messages show he wants to kill me, he wants to beat me up, that's what it shows."

She added: "He said he wanted to f*** my life up, he did ruin my life, to this day I'm still traumatised."

Lawrence denies a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The trial continues.