A businessman accused of assaulting his model ex-girlfriend says he has never been in a fight before and that she told him her previous boyfriend ‘used to beat her up’.
Ricky Lawrence, 33, is accused of pinning down, punching and repeatedly biting Chloe Othen, 34, at his £1.5million Knightsbridge home on October 15, 2022, after inviting her over.
Ms Othen has told Aldersgate House Crown Court she thought she would die after Lawrence ‘beat the cr*p’ out of her.
Jurors heard Lawrence later sent messages to Ms Othen saying: ‘I will do everything in my power to f**k you up.’
The pair had been in a relationship for around six months between December 2021 and May 2022 but remained ‘on and off’ after it ended.
Ms Othen, a Miss Universe GB finalist in 2015 and internet influencer with more than 280,000 Instagram followers, had been at Lawrence’s apartment in Hans Place when a conversation between the pair led to her feeling she needed to leave.
Ms Othen’s partner, Hatton Garden jeweller Bora Guccuk, 41, called her and Lawrence picked up the phone, threatening to stab them both, jurors have heard.
Lawrence gave evidence on Friday, June 6, wearing a light grey suit and a blue tie.
Ricky Lawrence (above) is accused of pinning down, punching and repeatedly biting Chloe Othen at his £1.5million Knightsbridge home on October 15, 2022
Ms Othen (above) has told Aldersgate House Crown Court she thought she would die after Lawrence ‘beat the cr*p’ out of her
Jurors heard Lawrence later sent messages to Ms Othen (above) saying: ‘I will do everything in my power to f**k you up’
He said he owns a tailoring company and first met Ms Othen outside a restaurant in Kensington.
‘I first met her outside a restaurant on Sloane Street. That would have been at the tail end of 2021,’ he said. ‘I was going in, she was leaving. We had a brief interchange and that was it.’
Mr Wyatt asked Lawrence: ‘Were you aware that she had a relationship with Bora Guccuk?’
He replied: ‘I knew that she had been on and off with someone’.
Lawrence explained that on one occasion, he had met Guccuk at the Cirque le Soir nightclub in the West End where Ms Othen had taken him for a friends birthday party.
He said that Mr Guccuk had confronted him, and that they had not seen each other after that. Lawrence said that at one point he had seen Ms Othen with a red mark on her face.
‘She had a mark on the side of her face. It looked like a footprint. It was a round mark. It was a red round mark,’ he said.
He claimed that Ms Othen had told him that Mr Guccuk was violent towards her.
Lawrence (above) gave evidence on Friday, June 6, wearing a light grey suit and a blue tie
Lawrence said he first met Ms Othen (above) outside a restaurant in Kensington
Lawrence claimed that Ms Othen (above) had told him that her ex-partner Bora Guccuk was violent towards her
‘She always described the relationship as violent. She said he used to beat her up, things of that nature,’ he told the court.
Lawrence said they broke up because he worked full time and she would often be out late.
Mr Wyatt asked Lawrence: ‘Have you ever bitten anyone?’ to which he replied: ‘Absolutely not. I’d never even had a fight’.
He claimed that after they had broken up in May 2022, he had called the police when she refused to leave his house.
‘When she realised I was on the phone to the police that’s when she left’, said Lawrence.
Mr Wyatt said: ‘She said that the two of you decided to try for a baby. Were you interested in that idea?’
‘Absolutely not’, replied Lawrence.
Mr Wyatt asked him how he had felt when Ms Othen told him she was pregnant.
Lawrence claimed that after they had broken up in May 2022, he had called the police when Ms Othen (above) refused to leave his house
Mr Wyatt asked Lawrence (above): ‘Have you ever bitten anyone?’ to which he replied: ‘Absolutely not. I’d never even had a fight’
He replied: ‘Awful. The way she is, that is not what you want from a mother’.
He admitted that he had confronted her at a restaurant in Cannes in the south of France during the Film Festival.
‘That evening I did approach her. I said what are you doing here, why are you drinking if you’re pregnant. She was clearly intoxicated at that point.’
He insisted that was the only time they had spoken in Cannes.
‘I didn’t see her at any other time. We didn’t cross paths at any time other than that,’ he said.
Lawrence denies assault causing actual bodily harm. The trial continues.
