A mother wept yesterday as she relived the moments her estranged husband broke into her home, beat her up and allegedly raped her at knifepoint.

The 31-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Supreme Court that she returned to her Southampton apartment in August last year after taking her daughter to nursery to find her husband in her home.

She said she asked him to leave, but he began repeatedly punching her in the face, knocking over the television and fan.

She gave her evidence in the second day of the trial in which her husband, a 28-year-old man, from Pembroke, has denied breaking into his wife's home with intent to murder her, causing her grievous bodily harm, and sexually assaulting her. She told the jury her clothes had been ripped off and she was crying and asking him to stop, but he pulled a steak knife out of his trouser pocket, and she feared he would use it.

In an effort to stop him from hitting her further, the woman said she asked her husband to get her some ice from the kitchen for her bleeding and swollen face.

She said he made her go to the kitchen with him, but then began to demand sex and started to thrust the knife towards her, forcing her into the bedroom.

She said: “When he gave me the ice, that's when he said to me ‘get inside (the bedroom) - let's have some sex'.

“I was crying and telling him ‘no'. He told me to lay down on the bed. He had the knife in his hand. He said ‘get your ass inside'. He was thrusting the knife towards me.”

The alleged victim said she cut her left hand on the knife as she tried to fight her attacker off.

And she said her husband put the knife at the side of the bed while he raped her, but then picked it back up again once it was over.

Afterwards, she said she jumped up crying and begged him not to hurt her. He is alleged to have said: “Look what you made me do.” And the victim said her husband then started to prod the knife into his own body, threatening to kill himself.

She told the court that she told him not to take his own life because their two-year-old daughter needed him.

She said he then began to clean blood off the wall in the hallway using a spray cleaner, and picked the television and fan up off the floor, and put the telephones back in their places.

The victim said she repeatedly asked her husband to take her to the hospital, and promised that she would say an unknown man had broken into her home and had attacked her, as he had asked her to.

Prosecutor Charmaine Smith asked the victim: “Why did you tell him that you would not tell the Police it was him?”

The mother replied: “I was afraid because he had the knife and I was afraid he was going to use it.”

The woman was driven to the hospital by her estranged husband. There, she told staff that her husband had caused her injuries.

Police were called and he was arrested soon after. Police said earlier in the trial that during interview he admitted to breaking into the house with the intention of murdering his wife.

During the trial yesterday, Police officers said when they went to the apartment, they found her husband's fingerprint on the trigger of a bottle of spray cleaner, as well as blood on the sheets of the bed.

When he took the stand yesterday, also sobbing, he told the jury that he loved his wife and never intended to kill her.

He admitted breaking into her home, claiming he was looking for signs that she was seeing or speaking to another man.

And he admitted “hitting” her. But he said he did not believe he had sexually assaulted her.

The defendant said once inside the property, he felt guilty and wanted to leave, but said his legs were unable to move.

Constantly breaking down, he said he wanted to explain to the court the events leading up to their separation six weeks earlier, and the emotions he had had inside.

He said he was carrying the knife because of the lifestyle he had recently been leading, and said he took it out of his pocket on the day in question because it was digging in his leg.

He said he never intended to use it on his wife. Sobbing, he said: “I did not enter my wife's house with the intention of killing my wife.

“In my statements (to Police), I wanted to tell the Police everything that had happened and the Police put that question to me. In my state of mind, I did not think about the seriousness of it.

“He (the detective) read the charges to me. I said ‘how can you do this to me - say that I was going to kill my wife'.

“I had been so honest and co-operative. He just stood there laughing.”

And the defendant said he wished he could have changed the events that day.

He added: “I don't want to assassinate my wife's character. I love her. She's a beautiful lady. There are a lot of outside forces that have forced my wife to be here today.

“I asked my wife for sex. She never said yes, let's have some sex, but she never said no, either. I'm not saying that to justify my behaviour in any way. I never thought I was sexually assaulting my wife.”

The defendant said if he had pleaded guilty to the charges, he believed he would never have had a voice.

Openly crying, he added: “I wish my wife was still here (in the court room) so I could apologise to her. I want to take this time to apologise to my mother, to women in the community, and members of the jury.

“Yes, I hit my wife, and we had sex, but I never intended to kill my wife, and I never thought I was sexually assaulting my wife.”

Cross examination of the defendant will begin at 9.30 a.m. today.