A MAN accused of using a shovel to smash a woman’s car outside her Littlemore home in the middle of the night has gone on trial.

Ellis Lawrence, of Warburg Crescent, Oxford, denies attempting to pervert the course of justice by intimidating Laura Clarke in Asquith Road on September 7.

A jury of seven men and five women at Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday that Lawrence’s older brother Tyron was due to appear for trial at Oxford Magistrates’ Court later that month after he pleaded not guilty to assaulting his ex-partner and trial witness Ms Clarke.

Lawrence told the court he slept with Ms Clarke twice last year while she was in a relationship with the defendant’s brother.

He admitted he damaged her car but said he was acting out of anger after Ms Clarke stopped speaking to him.

Bicycle mechanic Lawrence, 24, added: “At the time I was really depressed, really suicidal. I did not know what I wanted to do. I was confused, I was upset, I was angry.”

Prosecutor David Stanton said: “You went round there to intimidate Ms Clarke didn’t you, in the hope of helping your brother in the upcoming court case, that’s right isn’t it?

Lawrence replied: “No.”

Mother-of-three Ms Clarke told jurors on Tuesday she was woken by her father at about 12.20am and saw Lawrence on top of her Ford Focus grasping a shovel.

She said she asked Lawrence what he was doing and he replied: “You mess with my brother, I told you that you go through me.”

The trial continues.