A MAN accused of threatening to “blow up” the Penrith home of a woman he had allegedly assaulted six months earlier has gone on trial.
Michal Pawel Swidzinski, 32, denies three charges.
One alleges he assaulted Rebecca Greenhow by “grabbing her shoulders and shaking her around” on the night of March 18 in Penrith as she walked home after finishing work as a door supervisor.
A second charge alleges Swidzinski did an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice, on June 27, by approaching Mrs Greenhow and asking her to “sort it out between you”.
And a third charge alleges Swidzinski, of Victoria Road, Penrith, intimidated her on September 14 during a conversation as she returned home to her flat in the town.
As Swidzinski’s trial got under way today (TUES) at Carlisle Crown Court, Mrs Greenhow told of that alleged intimidation.
“He threatened to blow up my house if I attended court,” said told a jury.
Although she initially “laughed” at him, Mrs Greenhow recalled she “didn’t sleep very well that night”. “I started worrying that this might have been a genuine threat,” she told the jury.
The trial continues.