The victim of an alleged early hours attack at a Pembrokeshire flat had fled to her neighbour’s home in a dishevelled state, scared and screaming, before her flat was set on fire, a jury has heard.

Lloyd Jenkins, of The Ponds, Hundleton, Pembroke, is currently on trial at Swansea Crown Court for battery, arson and criminal damage. He denies all three charges.

As the trial continued today, Friday, the jury heard that Jenkins' partner had turned up at a neighbour’s home in Milford Haven, in the early hours of the morning of October 16 last year.

“She wasn’t good,” her friend told the court. “She was scared and shouting asking to come in.”

Jenkins’ alleged victim told her friend that they had been on a night out, but that she had come home early and come round to her friend’s to get away from her partner.

She said that the two women went into a back bedroom of the flat when around ten minutes later they heard a male voice shouting from the car park adjoining the flat and glass smashing.

The witness said she thought the voice possibly belonged to Jenkins, but couldn’t be sure. About 20 minutes after this a smoke alarm went off.

Jenkins’ partner said that her two dogs and Jenkins were inside her flat. A friend who tried to gain entry was met by a billow of smoke.

Firefighters arrived at the flat at Richard John Road, Milford Haven at 3.08 in the morning of October 16. Four firefighters entered the property and managed to rescue the dogs and extinguish the blaze. Jenkins was not found inside the flat.

A police officer called to the scene said that the kitchen of the flat had been destroyed in the fire and that in the master bedroom a television and pot plants were strewn across the floor.

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An expert forensic fire investigator, whose evidence was read out in court, said that in her opinion the fire had been started deliberately by someone igniting synthetic material of the type that is found inside pillows or jackets.

The fire had been set inside a main oven and a top oven in the kitchen of the flat as well as on the floor in the same room.

The jury was also shown two photos of Jenkins’ partner’s injuries and a photo of a damaged bedroom door at the flat at Richard John Road which had the imprint of a trainer on it. This imprint matched the size 9 Adidas trainer that Jenkins was wearing at the time of his arrest.

The court heard Jenkins had previous convictions for battery, criminal damage, assaulting a police officer and two counts of using threatening or abusive words of behaviour in order to cause fear. These were dated between 2014 and 2017.

Taking the stand in his defence Jenkins said that he and his partner had had a good relationship and had been together for four or five years.

He said that that they would have the occasional argument and that he would stay at a different address for a couple of nights to let things simmer down.

He said that he did not have a mobile phone as his partner got jealous of him looking at models on Instagram and it was easier not to have one.

People contacted him through his partner, which could cause problems. When pressed he said that his old phone had broken but that there had been nothing to stop him replacing it.

He said that his partner wanted them to have a couple’s weekend to thank him in reducing his working hours and looking after the children so that she could find work.

He said that on the night in question she became jealous over him talking to another girl and that they had had an argument in Circles Nightclub before he left.

He said that they had both been drinking rum and coke and Jack Daniels and coke at home, in the pub and in the club. On a scale of one to 10 drunk, he was around a five.

He maintained that after the argument in the nightclub, he left alone, returning to the flat in Richard John Road.

When he got there his partner was already there and began screaming at him. He said he asked her for her phone so that he could ring his brother to pick him up.

She had repeatedly refused, swearing at him and he had left and walked to a friend’s house about 10 minutes away.

Under cross examination, Jenkins strongly denied throwing a picture canvas at the woman and injuring her.

He said that he had not damaged anything in the flat, but could not explain why his foot print was on the damaged bedroom door.

He said that he had not set the fires in the oven or on the kitchen floor.

The court heard that in police interview he had produced a prepared statement denying the offences and saying that the damage to the flat had been caused by his ex.

“If it wasn’t me then it had to be her,” he told the jury when asked why he had said that in his statement.

When questioned about the shouting outside the flats, he said that he may have been mumbling ‘I don’t believe this’ to himself as he left the property.

He said he did not smash any glass but may have kicked a glass recycling bin as he left, however he did not remember.

He said that the fire had nothing to do with him.

The trial continues.

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