A woman allegedly stamped on by her partner stormed from court shouting ‘he’s an animal’.

Anthony Sexton, 34, of Stowford Road, Oxford, is accused of coercing the woman, attacking her and her friend, smashing up plates in her flat, then trying to intimidate her into withdrawing her statement. He denies all wrongdoing, telling police after his arrest it was ‘all a fairy tale’.

Giving evidence to Oxford Crown Court yesterday (January 23), the complainant walked from the witness box after prosecutor Nick Ferrari played the harrowing 999 call made after she was allegedly attacked in her flat last July.

“I don’t want to hear this,” she said.

“[It’s] like I’m being punished because somebody hurt me. It’s not fair. He’s an animal.

“I’m not staying. I’m not doing this. He’s a f***ing animal.”

Earlier, she told jurors that she was in her flat in Jericho with Sexton and friends on July 24. They had ordered a takeaway and were drinking, the court heard.

At one point, one of the friends – Derek Himpson – was said to have left the flat. She said Sexton ‘didn’t want’ him to go, so chased after him. Her partner returned around five minutes later and told her he had  ‘torn Derek’s t-shirt off him’, she said – adding Sexton seemed ‘quite proud of himself’.

She said he told her of a Facebook message he had received from an ex-girlfriend, saying she was ‘back in Oxford’. “I said I don’t want her coming anywhere near me,” the complainant told jurors.

Sexton allegedly ‘became angry’ and started smashing plates and a wooden chair. She ‘got her hands up and asked him not to do it’, she said.

The woman was said to have been pushed to the ground. “I remember being punched quite viciously…in my chest, my arm and my face,” she said.

“That wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was after then when he decided that punching me wasn’t enough and he stamped on my face.”

Sexton allegedly threatened to ‘get me and my baby shot’, she said. She called 999, with jurors able to hear her distress in the audio recording as she spoke to the call handler.

“Did you tell them the truth?” prosecutor Mr Ferrari asked. “Yes,” she replied.

Opening the Crown’s case against the defendant on Monday, Mr Ferrari claimed Sexton had ‘used his cunning, coercive wherewithal to his advantage seeking to intimidate the complainant’.

He ‘got her’ to visit him in hospital, where he was receiving treatment, and told her to withdraw her support for the prosecution, he said.

Mr Ferrari said: “She contacted the police and said she no longer stood by her original witness statement, she wanted to stay in a relationship with him. We say that was simply out of fear.”

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

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward