A teacher who had her neck broken by her landscape gardener lover after she threatened to leave him believed she was ‘going to die’, a jury has heard.
Trudi Burgess, 57, was left paralysed from the neck down after Robert Easom flew into an ‘uncontrollable’ rage and launched his ‘vicious’ attack.
Easom, 56, pinned her face down on the bed, before placing his entire body weight on her neck until it snapped.
He dialled 999 but then ‘lied’ about what happened, saying Ms Burgess had ‘fallen out of bed’, Preston Crown Court heard.
He also told her relatives: ‘It was just a frolic which has gone horribly wrong.’
Easom is on trial accused of deliberately breaking Ms Burgess’s neck in an attempt to cause her very serious harm.
Giving evidence, Ms Burgess described how Easom got ‘really angry’ and dragged her to the foot of the bed.
As she was on her knees, he pushed her head, which ‘hyperflexed’ and ‘folded in’ to her chest.
Trudi Burgess, 57, was left paralysed from the neck down and thought she was going to die after Robert Easom flew into an ‘uncontrollable’ rage and launched his ‘vicious’ attack
She said she felt her neck ‘break’ and she started to feel ‘numb’.
‘I think I screamed, but then once he folded my head in, I had no voice, I couldn’t scream,’ she told the jury.
‘I couldn’t get out, and he’s so strong, there was absolutely no getting out of it.
‘And then he just kept folding my head, in and in and in.
‘I kept thinking, “He’s gonna stop now”, and, “I’m gonna die”.’
She said she tried to say, ‘You’re killing me’ but she couldn’t speak.
Ms Burgess added that she remembered flopping back and telling Easom: ‘Oh my God, I can’t feel anything in my body, you’ve ruined both our lives.’
She said Easom had initially told her ‘you’re fine’.
But when she insisted she couldn’t move, he put his head in his hands and said: ‘Oh my God Trudi, what have I done?’
The 999 call was played to the jury, and when Easom was asked what had happened, he replied: ‘She’s just had an accident and she can’t move.’
He added: ‘She’s fallen out of bed and just landed in a bad way really.’
Ms Burgess is heard telling the call handler they were ‘play fighting’ when Easom pushed down on her neck and she ‘can’t feel’ anything in her lower body.
Ms Burgess, 57, a teacher was allegedly attacked by Easom when she tried to end their relationship
When paramedics attended at Easom’s home, he told them the couple had been ‘mollycoddling’ and ‘messing round’ and Ms Burgess was positioned ‘chin to chest’ when he put his ‘body weight’ on her.
But Ms Burgess later told police there had not been a fall or a play fight and Easom had injured her deliberately.
The jury previously heard how the mother-of-two was grieving the death of her husband from a brain tumour and was ’emotionally vulnerable’ when she met Easom, who was her sister’s gardener.
Their relationship was ‘initially everything she wanted, heady, passionate and loving’ but it then became ‘abusive and violent’.
On one occasion, in 2021, Easom wrapped Ms Burgess’s head in a bed sheet until she was unable to breathe.
Then, on another, in January, he headbutted her in their car after she complained they did not have enough crockery or cutlery to host friends for dinner.
Easom has pleaded guilty to both those assaults and also admits breaking Ms Burgess’s neck and causing her tetraplegia.
But he denies intending to cause her very serious harm.
Sarah Magill, prosecuting, previously told the jury that Ms Burgess became ‘alienated’ from her family because of Easom’s abusive behaviour.
But by February 17, this year, she’d had enough and plucked up the courage to tell him their relationship was over after staying the night at Easom’s home, in Chipping, in the Ribble Valley, near Chorley, Lancashire.
Robert Easom, 56, is accused of deliberately breaking Trudi Burgess’s neck to cause her very serious harm
Easom had launched an ‘unprovoked and deliberate attack’ on Ms Burgess, she said.
He’d sworn at her and Ms Burgess had begged him not to hurt her, she said, but he manipulated her to the end of the bed.
Using both hands or his chest, he’d then pushed down with his ‘entire bodyweight’ on the back of her head, pushing her chin into her chest.
Ms Burgess screamed but Easom carried on and she ‘heard a crack and all feeling left her body’.
Ms Burgess was taken to hospital and CT scans confirmed her neck had been broken and she would never walk again, and she now requires 24-hour care.
After his arrest, Easom told police in a prepared statement that he would never do anything intentionally to hurt Ms Burgess.
‘I love Trudi more than life itself,’ he said.
The trial continues.
