Man cleared of ‘savage attack’ on girlfriend claims she injured herself in ‘weird sex game’

A man has been cleared of launching a ‘savage attack’ on his girlfriend by claiming she was injured in a ‘really weird sex game’.

Kane Elliott, 26, was accused of strangling Rhiannon Davies, slashing her back with knives and stamping on her as she begged him to stop.

When police arrived at the scene, they found Ms Davies naked and showing signs of heavy bleeding, with a swollen face and two black eyes.

She needed several stitches for the slash marks on her back, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Elliott denied wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, unlawful wounding and making a threat to kill.

The court heard he and Ms Davies had been drinking heavily all day before she decided she asked him to ‘strangle her, then slapped him across the face’ as part of a ‘sex game’.

Giving evidence, Elliott said: ‘She was very much into very rough sex. She said she wanted to try some new sex stuff. It got really weird. I did not know what to think.

‘From there it just got violent. Her idea was to involve the violence with the sex. She insisted on strangulation. She just wanted more and more and more.

‘She slapped me across the face. I was not expecting her to hit me. I realised I was not enjoying it. I pushed her off and told her to stop.’

Elliott then claimed Ms Davies started to ‘go mad’, accusing her of smashing up the flat and using a table leg to beat herself up.

He told the court he was ‘knocked unconscious’ and came round to see blood and ‘Ms Davies playing with a knife’.

The court heard neighbours raised the alarm after hearing banging coming from the flat in Cwmbran, Torfaen and then seeing Ms Davies run into the street.

One neighbour told police he allegedly heard Elliott shout: ‘Come back or I’ll get a butcher’s knife and skin you alive.’

Prosecutor Meirion Davies told the court that police found Ms Davies ‘naked and showing signs of heavy bleeding and injuries to her face which was swollen’.

He continued: ‘There were a number of slash marks on her back. There was bruising on her legs and arms. This was a savage battering.’

The court heard that Elliott was ‘very aggressive’ when police entered the flat and ‘began frothing at the mouth’.

Ms Davies told police Elliott had asked her to cut herself with a knife but then did it himself when she refused.

The prosecutor continued: ‘She also references being slashed in the back. She described Elliott strangling her while she was on the floor.

‘She was begging him to stop. She tried to escape but was dragged back. She tried to deceive him, telling him she was pregnant. But he punched her to the stomach anyway.

‘At one point when she was being strangled she felt like her eyes would pop out.’

Jurors heard she escaped the incident but running outside and asking a group of male strangers to call the police on her behalf.

Elliott, from Cwmbran, was found not guilty of all the charges against him after a week-long trial.