A 24-YEAR-OLD man used a shovel to smash a woman's car outside her Littlemore home in the middle of the night, a court heard.

Ellis Lawrence, of Warburg Crescent, Oxford, denies intimidating Laura Clarke at her home in Asquith Road, on September 7 last year.

A jury of seven men and five women heard the defendant's older brother Tyron Lawrence was due to appear for trial at Oxford Magistrates' Court later that month after denying assaulting his ex-partner and trial witness Ms Clarke.

Mother-of-three Ms Clarke told Oxford Crown Court at about 12.20am she was woken up by her dad, who urged her to call police after seeing Lawrence on top of her Ford Focus outside her home.

She said she looked outside the window of her daughter's bedroom and saw the defendant holding a shovel while on top of the car.

Ms Clarke told jurors she asked Lawrence what he was doing and he replied: "You mess with my brother, I told you that you go through me."

She said he then smashed the car before police arrived and arrested him.

Ms Clarke added: "I was really scared. My daughter was in there. They [family members] were upset as well because they saw their uncle doing it. They were crying as well."

Defence barrister Ronan McCann put it to Ms Clarke that she had slept with the defendant in June and August last year while she was in a relationship with the defendant's brother.

She told the court it was a "one off" but admitted the pair had slept together while her ex-partner was at home looking after their children.

The trial continues.