A teacher wept today as she told how her jealous lover was ‘like the Incredible Hulk’ in a bedroom attack which left her paralysed.
Trudi Burgess, 56, said that Robert Easom, 56, was ‘a monster’ when he flew into an uncontrollable rage because she wanted to end their relationship.
A jury at Preston Crown Court has heard how Ms Burgess was left a tetraplegic with paralysis from the chest down following the assault by landscape gardener Easom in February.
The mother of two adult children, who is wheelchair bound, was attended by medical staff as she gave pre-recorded evidence which was played to the court today.
She told the court that she heard a cracking as Easom pinned her to her bed and ‘had the feeling of all feeling going out of my body’ as Easom pushed her down.
Ms Burgess broke down in tears as she told the jury: ‘I was going numb with each crack.’
She told how she went to Easom’s house in Chipping Lancashire for the weekend after working during the week as a teacher and had decided to tell him their relationship was over.
The court was told that she ‘plucked up courage’ to tell him on the Monday morning.
She said that she had tried to end it before but had always been ‘cajoled’ to resume because there had been some ‘joyful moments’.
Ms Burgess said: ‘I decided to be completely straight with him and end the relationship once and for all. I had avoided having that conversation because it could end up with him being scary and getting aggressive.’
She said that Easom brought her a cup of tea and she told him she was going back to her own home in Chorley.
She said: ‘I am sorry, Rob, but this is it. I am going home. I think it is the best thing because all we do is argue. We need to end this because nothing ever changes and we are in a rut.
‘He started to get angry and was saying “why the f*** do you always do this, you are always causing an argument?”.
‘He started to accuse me of making things complicated and started to get into one of his rages and started to pace around.’
Ms Burgess told prosecutor Sarah Magill that she tried to placate him and backed down which was ‘what habitually happened’.
She said: ‘I told him “I will stay. I love you. Please do not hurt me. Everything is fine.” But he did not calm down.’
Ms Burgess said that she was on the bed on her knees when Easom pinned her down and told her ‘you stupid f***ing b****’.
She continued: ‘I started to scream “don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me” but he was like the Incredible Hulk in those rages.
‘It happened so fast. He put both his hands on the top of the back of my head and started to push down. I tried to scream but I could not scream. I have never felt a force like it. He pushed my head down and down and I could not say “stop”.
‘I tried to say “you are killing me” but he kept pushing down and I felt like my head was being folded into my body.
‘I heard a crack and had the feeling of all feeling going out of my body. I was going numb with each crack. More parts of my body went numb. I thought “I am dying, he is not stopping”. He was like a monster.’
She admitted that when Easom called an ambulance she had agreed with his story that they had been play fighting.
Ms Burgess said: ‘I told him to call an ambulance. He was kissing my face and saying “you are fine, you are not too bad”.’
Easom told her that he was going to go to prison and that he would lose his business and his children so she told the paramedics that they had been play-fighting.
She told the court: ‘I felt sorry for him. I had been in an abusive relationship and I knew this would let the cat out of the bag and I had tried so hard to keep the cat in the bag for years.
‘My children would know what their Mum had been through and I was so ashamed. I thought “this cannot be as bad as I am thinking, the feeling will come back. I can leave him quietly and no one will need to know. He will not go to prison”.
‘I was in this strange relationship and I thought I was the only one who could save him and help him. His own son had been in an accident and was tetraplegic.’
Ms Burgess described the effect of the attack which had left her with a broken neck and severe spinal injuries.
She said: ‘I feel nothing from my chest down. I have neuropathic pain which makes me feel like I cannot breathe.’
She said that her legs were ‘like a cold cement slab’ which were pulling her down.
Ms Burgess told how she had met Easom after her husband had died from a brain tumour and he had been working as her sister’s landscape gardener.
‘The relationship began and it was very good. We fell in love. I felt very comforted after having been completely depleted. He offered me a lot of comfort. It was passionate and quite adolescent at times with love hearts on messages.’
Cross-examined by Tobias Smith, for Easom, Ms Burgess accepted that she may have been ‘gesticulating and waving her arms’ in the exchange before the attack.
But she said she had only ever raised her arms against Easom to defend herself.
She accepted that in the beginning of their relationship, he had been ‘a perfect partner’.
Ms Burgess agreed that the attack had lasted ‘only a few seconds’ and that he had lifted his weight off her body.
She agreed that he had asked her to move but said she did not remember Easom tickling her feet to see if there was any sensation.
She accepted that he called an ambulance as soon as he realised how severe her injuries were.
Easom admits two previous assaults causing actual bodily on Ms Burgess and causing grievous bodily harm in the bedroom attack.
But he denies that the attack was with intent to cause her really serious harm and the jury has been told that the issue in the trial was intent.
The trial continues.
