A Miss Universe finalist who was allegedly attacked by her jealous ex-boyfriend has told a court how he threatened to slit her and her new partner’s throats.
Chloe Othen, 33, was left with bite marks, bruises and a septic cut all over her body after she went to see ‘abusive’ Ricky Lawrence, 32, at his £1.5million Knightsbridge flat on October 15 2022.
Lawrence and Miss Othen had been in an ‘on and off’ relationship for six months between December 2021 and May 2022 before it ended.
At Nightingale Crown Court in Holborn today, the teary model said she was punched 30 times and feared Lawrence was going to murder her after he invited her over in the early hours of the morning by text.
She claimed that Lawrence also grabbed two knives and said he was going to cut her throat.
‘He just went into a frenzy and attacked me, bear hugged me, punched me about 30 times, bit me, strangled me, it went on for about an hour and a half or whenever I left,’ she told the court.
‘He threw me on the floor, he dragged me by my hair, he pulled me up and down, he pinned me down, he strangled me, just as I was about to lose consciousness, he bit me on my neck and he punched me repeatedly.’
Chloe Othen, 33, was left with bite marks, bruises and cuts – some of which turned septic – all over her body a court heard
Ricky Lawrence (pictured) is accused of attacking Miss Othen in his £1.5 million Knightsbridge flat
Miss Othen said she was left with a cauliflower ear which had to be drained after it had swelled up from punches.
‘I could not (get away), every time I tried to get up, he would not let me leave,’ she added. ‘I thought I was going to die. I was definitely in there for about an hour.’
A row had erupted upon her arrival, with Lawrence allegedly lashing out and refusing to let the model, who has 305,000 followers on Instagram, leave the apartment.
She had tried to go but Lawrence is said to have snatched her phone from her hands, refusing to give it back. He then started repeatedly punching her head and biting her, jurors were told.
Miss Othen’s partner at the time, Bora Guccuk, 39, called her while she was at the apartment. Lawrence picked up the phone and allegedly threatened to kill him.
‘He said that he was going to finish me off and finish him (Bora) off, I saw him with my own eyes talking to Bora’, Miss Othen said. ‘He was threatening Bora and myself.
‘He said he was going to slit my throat and his (Bora’s) throat, it is imprinted in my brain that whole night,’ she added.
Eventually Miss Othen managed to leave the property with Lawrence chucking the phone back at her, the court heard.
Teary Miss Othen told jurors today that she feared Lawrence was going to murder her and was left ‘scared for her life’
Holborn Crown Court heard how one of the bite wounds on Miss Othen’s neck became septic
When police arrested Lawrence the next day, police found messages that the businessman had sent on the day of the alleged attack.
They read: ‘You f***ed up tonight, watch what I do now, you silly c***’ and ‘you f***ing stupid c***, you’re f****d now I swear, I will do anything in my power to f*** up the rest of your life, screenshot that.’
Miss Othen told jurors how Mr Guccuk kept calling and she started screaming the address and for him to call the police.
Speaking about the injuries she suffered, Miss Othen continued: ‘He bit my face, bit my neck which got infected, I have a bite on my arm, my scar, he bit my hip, all of them really deep, I had a tooth mark for about eight months.
‘I physically can’t do this myself and bite my own neck. He bit me six times that drew blood. He punched me at least 30 times.
‘He kicked me in the ribs, he kicked me on the floor like a dog, he was just hitting me and hitting me and he just would not stop.
‘I begged him to stop. He went and got two kitchen knives and told me he was going to slit my throat and chased me around the dining room.’
Telling the jurors how she escaped, Miss Othen said: ‘He dragged me into the bedroom, he throws the phone and my glasses at the other side of the room, he then throws them back at me and that is when I escape and run.
‘He was on the other side of the bedroom so I could run. ‘The bedroom is opposite the front door.
Miss Othen pictured at Suspect Lingerie launch party in Mayfair in April 2022
‘I ran to the Berkeley and called my friend Alex to meet me and met her there.
‘After all these events I cannot remember how it happened after, I just remember what happened in that flat. I was traumatised, in shock.’
Miss Othen says she was left with bites on her hip, inner thigh, elbow, neck, shoulder and face. One of the bites to her neck became infected and required antibiotics and tetanus boosters.
She claimed that she had to have scans for internal bruising and could not move her head, neck and jaw for a while.
Miss Othen eventually had her jaw unlocked and ear drained, but suffered post-concussion syndrome and anxiety.
A row erupted upon her arrival, with Lawrence allegedly lashing out and refusing to let the model, who has 305,000 followers on Instagram , leave the apartment
Prosecutor Sheilagh Davies Davies asked her: ‘Who do you say did this to you?’
Miss Othen replied: ‘Ricky Lawrence did this to me.’
The court heard that Lawrence had a ‘big chip on his shoulder’ with regards to Mr Guccuk who she had dated for almost two years before breaking up and meeting Lawrence.
She accused Lawrence of becoming ‘abusive’ and turning up unannounced.
‘He (Lawrence) had a big chip on his shoulder with Bora, he would always say about affording things’, Miss Othen told the court. ‘I did not demand anything from Ricky. I had not caused any problems, Ricky is the one who has been abusive.
‘He would turn up numerous times at my place in Queensway, the concierge would let him up, he turned up when I was at restaurants, he would turn up when I was in clubs, he even turned up in Mykonos on a beach.
‘He turned up for every dinner I had in Cannes, standing over me asking to talk, crying and punching himself. I was the one that was breaking up with him, he was the one that was begging me.’
Lawrence and the model had been in an ‘on and off’ relationship for six months between December 2021 and May 2022 before it ended
Following their initial relationship, Miss Othen fell pregnant and so moved back in with Lawrence to give him a ‘second chance’.
But after just two weeks, Miss Othen alleges he became aggressive again and she moved back out.
‘I did not want to get back with Ricky, did I love him yes, it is very hard being in a relationship with Ricky,’ she explained.
‘I always wanted to see the good and give him a second chance, it is actually pretty hard.
‘I wanted to give Ricky another chance, I gave Ricky another chance because yes I was pregnant.
‘This guy tried to kill me, beat me and assaulted me.
‘I gave him another chance, I was pregnant and it is pretty tough being with someone like that.
‘It was Ricky Lawrence that beat me up, it was Ricky Lawrence that tried to kill me, it was Ricky Lawrence that took my phone.
‘Everything that Ricky did was nothing like he did that night, that night I thought I was going to die.’
Miss Othen was a finalist in Miss Universe GB in 2015 and has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram
Lawrence’s defence barrister Tony Wyatt asked Miss Othen: ‘You received those messages from an abusive man who had previously bitten you and yet you decided to go to his?
She replied: ‘I would not have gone there if I knew and I would not be here today and I would not have to go over this day every day.’
Earlier, Ms Davies told the court that while the pair’s relationship ‘did not last very long’ they were still in ‘occasional contact and met up from time to time, including on October 15.
She told the court: ‘What happened there was obviously behind closed doors, there was conversation but it seemed that after a period of time, matters turned very ugly and Chloe Othen felt she needed to leave and go home.
‘Her account is that as she got up to leave, Ricky Lawrence grabbed her phone out of her hand and refused to give it back. He then lashed out and punched her in the head.
‘He was biting her multiple times and you will see that there are indeed what you might conclude are bite marks in various places about her body.
‘She said Ricky Lawrence stopped her from leaving and she was effectively kept there for a period of time unwillingly.’
‘Bora Gucuk, who at that time had become her boyfriend, tried to call her and the prosecution say it was Ricky Lawrence who answered Chloe Othen’s phone and also threatened Bora Guccuk that he would kill him.’
The prosecution said that after Miss Othen ‘made her escape’ she called Mr Guccuk for help.
They met at the Berkeley hotel along with Miss Othen’s female friend Alexandra Ivanovic.
Lawrence, of Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Miss Othen (pictured)
The prosecution added: ‘Police were called, they turned up at the Berkeley Hotel. Ricky Lawrence was arrested and in due course he was taken to the police station and interviewed.
‘He did not answer all the questions posed to him in the police interview, which is his right, but he did read a prepared statement. What he says is that the relationship had broken down but on 15 October.
Lawrence has denied one count of bodily harm. He told the court today: Chloe had turned up at my address, her partner contacted her, I told her to leave the flat as I did not want any trouble from her or her partner, I then ended the call.
He denied threatening to stab either Ms Othen or Mr Guccuk.
His statement continued: ‘She then began to scratch and hit me, I did not use unlawful violence against her and I believe her allegations are malicious and are a result of her not wanting to ruin her current relationship.’
Ms Davies said: ‘Chloe Othen was also able to produce shortly after the incident, ten photographs that depicted her various nine or ten sites of injury and the following day further images were provided.
‘Chloe Othen had a number of injuries and very nasty injuries at that, the question for you will be, who caused them, they clearly cannot have been self inflicted, the crown case is that angry at the situation with Chloe Othen, Ricky Lawrence inflicted all those injuries on her.
Miss Othen pictured with Georgia Harrison at Suspect Lingerie launch party in Mayfair in April 2022
Miss Othen told the court: ‘Ricky started becoming very aggressive on the texts and I thought I would let him calm down and then I would go and see him. Throughout the day, Ricky had asked me to come over.
‘I wanted to calm him down, Ricky was quite abusive during our relationship and he was quite aggressive. I did not want to be with Ricky anymore, it is really hard when you really love somebody but he is, to be honest with you a narcissist.
‘He would send me abuse all of the time, because I did not want to be back with him.’
Jurors heard Lawrence also sent Miss Othen messages saying: ‘I am the worst enemy, I don’t go away you silly c***, you thought you could mug me off’ and ‘I am going out of my way to f- your life up.’
‘I did not want to take him back and that is the only thing, this happened a lot during the relationship, so sometimes I would engage in conversation as it was easy for me actually, he is quite scary.
‘It was normal that he would send me messages like this and then the next message or the next day he would be normal. He used to punch himself in the head quite a lot, he used to punch the wall, he used to pull his hair out.
‘Within five minutes of arriving, he snapped my phone. In hindsight, I genuinely think he wanted to kill me, I don’t understand why he took my phone, he did not have access to it, it was as soon as I arrived.
‘He did not say anything, he just snapped my phone, he told me I was not getting it back, it was his now and that was it.’
Lawrence, of Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The trial continues.