Model ‘beaten by ex-partner’ lunched near flat after alleged attack, court told

A model who claims she was bitten and beaten by her ex-boyfriend frequently had lunch 100 yards away from his Knightsbridge flat despite saying she fears him, a court heard.

Chloe Othen, 33, who has more than 300,000 Instagram followers, says she was punched in the head 30 times, strangled and dragged along the floor by her hair by Ricky Lawrence, 32.

Lawrence is also accused of biting Ms Othen, taking her phone and stopping her from leaving his flat in Hans Crescent, after a text message row in the early hours of October 15 2022.

On Wednesday, Ms Othen told a trial at Nightingale Crown Court in Holborn, central London: “I don’t feel safe in the UK to be totally frank.”

However, Tony Wyatt, defending, asked why after the incident she would frequent Motcombs Belgravia, a restaurant around 100 yards from Lawrence’s flat, if she was scared of him.

Ms Othen replied: “I went there because it’s opposite my hairdressers, where I get my hair extensions, I’m allowed to have lunch wherever I want to have lunch, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mr Wyatt said: “You’re regularly going to where you know you are going to bump into him.”

The court heard businessman Lawrence and Ms Othen had been in a relationship earlier in 2022, and had still been sleeping together despite the model having a new boyfriend, Bora Guccuk.

During a heated cross-examination, Mr Wyatt said Lawrence did not attack Ms Othen, asking if it was Mr Guccuk after finding out about their tryst.

The model replied: “You’re really clutching at straws here, it was Ricky Lawrence who did this to me, he’s the only person who did this to me.”

The defence barrister also suggested Ms Othen went over to the flat drunk to tell Lawrence off because he was going to reveal their relationship to Mr Guccuk, which she denied.

Jurors were shown a video of the model pulling cushions off a sofa at around 6.07am, which Mr Wyatt claimed was her “intoxicated” and looking for her phone in Lawrence’s flat on the morning of the alleged attack.

Ms Othen tearfully responded: “I know what happened that night, I know who abused me, it was Ricky Lawrence, I didn’t make this up, I have no idea what this video is.”

She also said: “It’s muffled to make me sound like that (intoxicated), he premeditated that because he knew he was going to beat the s*** out of me.”

In messages sent before the alleged attack, Lawrence wrote to her: “I’ll do anything in my power to f**k up your life.”

Mr Wyatt claimed this was the defendant suggesting he would reveal their relationship, but Ms Othen said: “I feel stupid going there, I’m embarrassed, I think about this every night, how stupid I am.

“These messages show he wants to kill me, he wants to beat me up, that’s what it shows.”

She added: “He said he wanted to f**k my life up, he did ruin my life, to this day I’m still traumatised.”

Lawrence denies a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and the trial continues.