A north jury heard yesterday how a woman put up a fight when a stranger who accosted her in a town car park and threatened to hijack her car.
Although ‘terrified’, Sonya Paul, 36, wrestled with Donald McPhee, 30, who eventually abandoned the attempt in car park at Riverside, Wick, and ran off.
A jury at the town’s sheriff court heard how Miss Paul’s intention to have a relaxing walk round the river, on a sunny October evening, last year, changed dramatically after she parked her car.
The self-employed artist said that a man she later identified in court as McPhee appeared suddenly, opened the car door and ordered her to “get out ” – shouting it was an emergency and commenting – “All the police are dead”.
Miss Paul told the court she struggled with the accused who claimed to know her although she had never seen him before.
She described a “wrestling match”, adding “he was trying to get me out of the car” and he “eventually managed to prise” the ignition key out of her hands.
Miss Paul added: “God knows what would have happened. I was terrified and in an absolute panic.”
She sustained a scratch on one of her arms and a cut to her face.
Miss Paul rejected a suggestion from defence solicitor Ian Houston that McPhee had not been trying to pull her out of the car and that she was holding onto him and preventing him getting away from her.
Miss Paul replied “absolutely not” and dismissed a further suggestion that McPhee had said he needed to borrow her car because there was an emergency.
Miss Paul told the jury that she was “absolutely petrified”. Eventually, McPhee gave up and left the scene and Miss Paul called the police.
McPhee, described as a prisoner at Inverness Prison, denies, on indictment, assaulting Miss Paul and displaying threatening or abusive behaviour in Bridge Street, Wick, where he is alleged to have stood in the roadway, adopting a menacing stance and an intimidating demeanour.
The accused also pleads not guilty to two charges of assaulting two police officers in the execution of their duty.
The trial before Sheriff Andrew Berry and a jury of nine women and six men continues today.
