A SOLDIER accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend by cutting her throat and leaving her to bleed on the bathroom floor is claiming a combination of “self-defence and accident”, a court heard.

But a Home Office pathologist said her findings were “inconsistent” with Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon’s explanation of how Alice Ruggles died in her Gateshead flat last October.

Newcastle Crown Court was told the 2 Scots signaller is claiming in his defence statement that the 24-year-old scratched him and he tried to restrain her in a headlock before she came at him with a carving knife and it ended up lodged in her neck.

Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said Dhillon, 26, first told police he did not go into the flat, but his story changed when Miss Ruggles’ blood was found on his Help For Heroes wristband and the steering wheel of his BMW.

In the defence statement, Dhillon denies murder but admits he was the only person with her when she died.

Mr Wright said Dhillon claims it was a “combination of self-defence and accident”.

He claims they had a row in the yard, he climbed through a window to get into the flat and tried to find clothes belonging to him, and Miss Ruggles came at him with a carving knife.

Dhillon says he put her in a headlock and she fell on some bathroom scales and cutting her nose.

Later, he claims she grabbed the knife again when he said he was going to meet a woman in Durham.

And she lunged at him, hitting her head on the sink, he claims. In the struggle, Dhillon claims as they came together, the knife pushed into the side of her throat.

She was bleeding heavily, and the Special Forces hopeful says he suffered a flashback to a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Dhillon drove back to his barracks near Edinburgh, contemplating suicide, his statement says.

Pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton found Miss Ruggles’ neck was sliced or slashed at least six times through to her spine. There was evidence she was knelt on and there were cuts to her hands which appeared to be defence injuries.

The pathologist said his claims were “broadly inconsistent” with her findings.

The jury heard how the pair had an intense relationship which Miss Ruggles, from Leicestershire, ended after she found evidence of his infidelity. The trial continues.