A whiskey dealer accused of punching a Miss Universe finalist 30 times after a fight told a court it was ‘impossible’ he hit her as there were no marks on his hands.
Ricky Lawrence, 32, allegedly punched his ex-girlfriend Chloe Othen in the head 30 times, choked her and dragged her along the floor by her hair in the early hours of October 15, 2022, following a texting row.
Miss Othen, 33, an Instagram influencer with 305,000 followers, said she feared she would die after Lawrence is said to have grabbed two knives and threatened to cut her throat at her £1.5million flat.
Lawrence is also accused of biting Miss Othen, taking her phone and preventing her from leaving her flat in Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge.
Giving evidence today, Lawrence told jurors he had not kidnapped Miss Othen as she had claimed, instead telling his partner at the time, Bora Guccuk: ‘There is no kidnapping, this is my address. You come and get her, she won’t go.’
Lawrence said he ‘in no way’ bit Miss Othen and claims he hit her were ‘impossible’ as he had no marks on his hands.
Chloe Othen, 33, an Instagram influencer with 305,000 followers, said she feared she would die after ex-boyfriend Ricky Lawrence allegedly grabbed two knives and threatened to cut her throat in his £1.5million flat.
Miss Othen’s partner at the time, Bora Guccuk, 39, called her while she was in the flat but Lawrence answered the phone and allegedly threatened to kill him
Ricky Lawrence, 32, pictured outside Nightingale crown court at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Holborn, where he is charged with assaulting Instagram star Chloe Othen
He said he did not use any physical violence against her, but instead asked her repeatedly to leave the property.
Lawrence and Miss Othen had been in an “on and off” relationship between December 2021 and May 2022 before it ended “very abruptly”, jurors heard.
He told Nightingale crown court at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Holborn, that his relationship with Miss Othen had been ‘nothing but trouble for six months’.
He said he and Miss Othen bumped into each other frequently and slept together on several occasions between May and October 15, 2022, despite her being involved in a ‘money relationship’ with Mr Guccik.
Lawrence said he and Miss Othen exchanged messages between about midday and 2.30pm on October 14 before agreeing to meet at 17.30 the same evening.
Miss Othen canceled and Lawrence then heard from her around midnight, he said, after which they spoke every half hour until the early hours of October 15.
Lawrence said he would tell Mr Gaccuk that he and Miss Othen were having an affair.
He told the court that he woke up at around 5.45am and opened the door to Miss Othen straight after.
Asked about Miss Othen’s condition at the time, Lawrence said she was ‘clearly very, very drunk or on something else’ and ‘slurring’.
Lawrence said he answered Miss Othen’s phone, which she had left on the coffee table, after he saw it was Mr. Guccuk who called ‘to tell him she was at my house’.
He claimed that Miss Othen then ‘panicked and started saying: ‘He’s kidnapped me” while still on the phone and that he put the phone back on the table when the short call ended.
Miss Othen claims that Lawrence answered the phone and threatened to kill Mr. Guccuk.
Lawrence denied all allegations that he threatened to kill or stab either Miss Othen or Mr Guccuk in the neck.
The defendant said that after having ‘the same, repeated conversation’ with Miss Othen, he ‘scooped her up and held her almost like a baby’ and took her to the front door and again asked her to leave.
Miss Othen re-entered the apartment but eventually left of her own accord, Lawrence said, and he didn’t hear anything else until about 12:30 a.m. later that day, when police arrived at the property.
The jury was then shown WhatsApp messages exchanged between Lawrence and Miss Othen on October 15 from 04.17 onwards.
The messages said: ‘You f***** up tonight, look what I’m doing now you silly s***.’
He added: ‘You bloody stupid bitch, you’re a f ***** now I swear I’m going to do everything in my power to fuck you for the rest of your life. screenshot it.’
Referring to the ‘Screenshot’ part of a message, Lawrence said: ‘She used to delete messages so I couldn’t forward them to someone else.’
Miss Othen was a finalist in Miss Universe GB in 2015 and has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram
Chloe Othen, 33, (pictured) has said Ricky Lawrence, 32, pulled her hair and repeatedly bit her in an hour-long frenzy after sending her a barrage of abusive messages
He told jurors Miss Othen regularly made allegations of stalking against him, which he denied in court, adding: “Wherever I was, it seemed she was.”
Defense barrister Tony Wyatt asked what Miss Othen had told Lawrence about her former boyfriend, Mr Guccuk, to which Lawrence replied: ‘She told me she had been in an abusive relationship, several times.’
Lawrence claimed that when he picked Miss Othen up from outside Mr Guccuk’s home in around April 2022, she had “a mark along the side of her face”.
Tony Wyatt, defending Lawrence, also asked: ‘How often would (seeing each other) end up with you having sex?’
Lawrence replied: ‘Often more often than not.’
Wyatt asked: ‘We’ve heard the relationship described as toxic by (Miss Othen’s friend) Alex Ivanovic; do you agree?’
Lawrence said: ‘Oh yes absolutely,’
Sir. Wyatt asked him, ‘Looking back, did you even like each other?’
Lawrence replied: ‘Looking back on it, no, it was nothing but trouble during those six months of my life.’
The barrister asked: ‘Why did you send those messages?’
Lawrence replied: ‘When you’ve had the couple of months I’ve had where you’re told you’re going to have a baby, you don’t have a baby, take out clients and get rejected repeatedly when you’ve had all that , your language becomes more colorful than it usually is.’
“Were you drunk when you sent it?” asked Mr. Wyatt.
“No,” Lawrence replied.
‘It’s all going public now’ what were you implying?’ asked Mr. Wyatt.
Lawrence replied: ‘Our affair and Bora is figuring it out.
“She knew that was what I meant when I had threatened it the week before.”
“Miss Othen said you bit her, is there any truth in that?” asked Mr. Wyatt
“Absolutely not,” Lawrence said.
“She’s told us now in evidence that in fact that night you punched her in the face and punched her nose and that’s why she left,” Mr Wyatt said.
“Absolutely not,” Lawrence replied.
‘Had you heard anything about the allegations before she gave evidence?’ asked Mr. Wyatt.
“Absolutely not,” he replied.
Lawrence, of Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, denies a single charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The trial continues.