A ‘woman scorned’ told jurors she couldn’t have been the one who drove a Nissan Micra at her ex – as she was with her since-jailed dad in Nottingham.

Heather Cherrie, 20, is said by prosecutors to have deliberately driven the hatchback at her former partner in South Street, Banbury, on July 3 last year, having struck him in Tesco car park earlier in the day.

She denies doing anything wrong on the July date – and also denies allegations she slapped the man in Banbury on June 26.

Giving evidence in her own defence this afternoon, Cherrie told the jury that she was not behind the wheel of the Nissan, as she had spent July with her father in Nottingham.

She produced a picture showing her together with her father. The image was a screenshot from her iPhone, she said, with her dad. A date and time stamp on the picture given to jurors suggested it was taken at 2.41pm on July 3.

That was around the same time that a former friend of Cherrie’s claimed that she was with the defendant at an open-air market.

From the stand, Cherrie denied that claim and maintained she had been in Nottingham.

Prosecutor Robert Lindsey questioned why the photograph had only been given to the Crown at 3pm on the second day of her trial. She said she had given the image to her lawyers previously but had not sent it to the police as they had not provided ‘a link’ through which she could send the photo.

She said she ‘didn’t know’ why her father – now a serving prisoner – had not responded to requests by the police to provide a statement.

Putting the prosecution’s case, Mr Lindsey said: “You are a woman scorned and that is why you ran over [your ex-partner] on July 3, isn’t it? You were so angry you just drove straight into him in your car. No one else was in that car, it was you.”

The defendant said that it was not her in the car.

She told the court that her former partner had broken up with her on August 25, 2020, when she had his child – countering suggestions they had been in a relationship for just two months in 2018.

Cherrie said: “The day I gave birth [our son], that is the day we split up.”

The young woman had gone up to her ex’s new partner in Banbury on June 26 to try and show her images of the man ‘cheating’. “I didn’t want him to hurt her the way he hurt me,” she said.

Cherrie, of Manor Road, Brackley, denies dangerous driving and assault. The trial continues. 

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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