A MAN described as “obsessively jealous” slashed his girlfriend’s throat when she tried to end their relationship, a court has been told.

Sezwin Crasto is accused of the “particularly determined” assault on his then-partner, who asked to be kept anonymous, in a terraced house in Broad Street in March.

He allegedly used a “sawing motion” with a Stanley knife to cut her larynx, leaving her with life-threatening injuries that required four hours of emergency surgery.

Prosecutors allege “he must have been trying to kill her”, but speculated he was either interrupted by his dad or changed his mind after seeing her on her knees.

The university student was also left with lacerations to her face and wrist in the attack.

Crasto is accused of attempted murder following the incident at his home in Broad Street, Swindon, at around 5.30pm on March 21.

On the first day of his trial at Bristol Crown Court, jurors were told the defendant had tried to “control [the alleged victim’s] friends”.

Prosecutor Mark Worsley said this started out with male friends, where he would block them from her accounts on social media, and later continued to female friends.

But when she went away to university, he would visit her announced.

Mr Worsley told jurors that on March 21 she had decided to ask to meet with Crasto at a park at 6pm, to end the relationship.

“She described him as obsessed with her. She said he was not happy with the reason, demanded to know where she was, and turned up at her house.”

He arrived at 4.30pm, and “essentially frogmarched” her to his house.

The pair, who first met in 2019, were caught on CCTV walking along Manchester Road, and on the corner of Alfred Street, she can be seen to try to run away.

“She gets away briefly, comes back, he comes back after her, puts his arm around her and brings her back.

“He won’t have it. She’s not fighting and struggling, but she’s under compulsion.”

When the pair arrive at the defendant’s home in Broad Street, Mr Worsley said he pushed her against the wall.

“She started crying and got up to leave, but he blocked her, grabbed her, and apologised.”

He then reverted to being angry and pushed her chair over, Mr Worsley said. It is at this point that prosecutors allege Crasto stabbed the victim.

“She had not been aware of all he had done to her, particularly to her face, but had felt the blade on her throat.

“It hurt, she thought she was dying. She pushed him and begged him to stop, with her hands clasped. She could not speak.”

Also on Wednesday, jurors were shown body-worn video of police officers arriving at the scene, with Crasto saying “it’s me” when asked who injured the alleged victim.

They were also played a 999 call that the defendant made just after the incident.

“The relationship between this defendant and (this woman) was not an equal relationship,” Mr Worsley said.

“He was intensively and obsessively jealous of her and tried to control her contact with all her friends, and had an anger problem.

“He hadn’t led her to believe he would hurt her as he was to do on that day.

“At his house, he sat her down, and refused to listen to her. He railed at her friends and took no responsibility for his actions.

“The Crown can’t say if he had a knife on him, or if he took a knife from elsewhere in the room.

“The fact he changed his mind, whether through the intervention of his father, or the sight of (the woman) on her knees, with her hands together, does not affect his culpability for what he had already done, that he had tried to kill her but changed his mind.”

Meanwhile, Robin Shellard, for Crasto, said the 21-year-old’s case is that “it wasn’t him”.

“The first thing you’ll have to decide is whether Mr Crasto caused these injuries,” he told jurors.

“He says it wasn’t him, it was another person. You will hear the reasons why he says that.”

Crasto has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and an alternative count of wounding with intent. The trial continues.