A graduate’s pleas for help were ignored by police just five days before she was murdered by her former boyfriend, a court has heard.
Alice Ruggles, 24, was subjected to months of harassment by Trimaan Dhillon, 26, a soldier, before he cut her throat, the murder trial at Newcastle crown court was told.
In the days leading up to her death, Ruggles told friends that she felt “palmed off” by police after contacting them when Dhillon sent her a package on 7 October 2016 containing a pleading letter and photographs of them. Ruggles told her flatmate, who later discovered her body, that the response to her from Northumbria police had been “a waste of time”..
Her flatmate, Maxine McGill, told the jury: “Alice reported it to the police, it was 101 she called and it was the telephone operator she spoke to. She said she felt palmed off. She was asked the question: ‘What do you want us to do about it?’ She said: ‘I don’t know, that is why I am calling because I was told that if anything further happened I was to get in touch’. She said basically it was a waste of time.”
Five days later, Dhillon, an army signaller of lance corporal rank, who said he was planning to join the SAS, scaled a wall and climbed through a window to confront Ruggles. He cut her throat from behind with a large kitchen knife, the court heard, and fled leaving her to bleed to death on the bathroom floor.
The court was told Dhillon, also known as Harry, became infatuated with Ruggles after they were introduced online, and later became violent and threatening when she discovered he had been unfaithful to her and called off the relationship.
The court heard that Dhillon took photographs of Ruggles’ backyard, as reconnaissance, two nights before the murder; he used skills he had acquired during his time in 2nd Scots, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, to stalk his victim.
His rage towards Ruggles grew when he discovered she had become close with another British soldier, Mike James, after hacking each of their social media accounts.
Dhillon had already been cautioned by police and warned about contacting Ruggles by a senior officer.
McGill said Ruggles had become a shadow of her former self because of Dhillon’s stalking, but that she had been on the verge of finding new happiness.
Ruggles left Dhillon after she discovered he had been cheating with a number of women he had met via the Tinder dating app.
He refused to accept that the relationship with Ruggles was over and bombarded her with messages and threats, contacted her friends and family, hacked her social media accounts, and drove from his Edinburgh barracks to her flat to intimidate her.
McGill, said: “Alice became an introvert, visibly shaking with anxiety. She became skinny, she lost so much weight, she was pale and nowhere near as outgoing as she used to be. I remember him using the words or phrase “kill you” six or seven times in that message [voicemail]. Alice had become very frightened of him and had started to say to him: ‘You are making me think you want to hurt me’.”
However, despite her fears over Dhillon, Ruggles appeared to be on the verge of starting a relationship with James.
McGill said: “Mike made her very happy, she told me that. She had a great couple of days with her sister and Mike. It was a strong bond between two people, they got on like a house on fire and she said the banter between them was unreal – that’s how she put it.”
But unknown to Ruggles or James, Dhillon had hacked their social media accounts to keep track of their location. The court heard that, knowing the pair were due to meet the following weekend, Dhillon returned to his victim’s apartment, and scaled a wall and window to lie in wait for her to return from work.
McGill wept as she told the court how she panicked after being unable to open the locked bathroom door at their flat in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. She climbed a perimeter wall and hauled herself through a window to find Ruggles’ body on the floor.
Visibly shaking, she told the jury: “The first thing that I noticed was the amount of blood, it was everywhere. At first I thought she had fallen and hurt her head but I could see there were signs of a struggle. I knew when I saw her that she was dead, she was changing colour, there was no response from her.”
Dhillon, of Glencorse Barracks, Penicuik, near Edinburgh, denies murder. The trial continues.
