Magistrates' Court yesterday that he cheated on the ex-girlfriend he is accused of assaulting last year.

And the defendant, who has pressed counter assault charges against 33-year-old Leyoni Junos of Warwick, said that he didn't know if he had been the cause of her terminated pregnancy.

Kenneth Dill, 49, of Southdown Farm in Southampton, has pleaded not guilty to punching Leyoni in the nose last year, claiming that she was the one who had slapped and kicked him.

"Miss Junos,'' Dill said during cross-examination by Police prosecutor Sgt.

Rex Osborne, "informed me she was pregnant and that I was the father. I don't know if I was the father. There was reason to disbelieve her because Miss Junos was intimately involved with another man.'' Characterising their union as an "on-off'' one, Dill further testified that the relationship became "off'' again shortly after Junos terminated the pregnancy.

"If Miss Junos was unhappy, she could have left,'' Dill told Sgt. Osborne when he asked if Junos seemed happy with this arrangement. "Miss Junos in my presence told other people she didn't mind sharing me with platonic friends.'' Denying that he had had any other intimate relationships while "on'' with Junos, Dill said he was on the telephone on the night of the alleged incident when "she (Junos) entered (his home) uninvited. She was totally unexpected.'' In response to Sgt. Osborne's query about why she did not have an open invitation when he had asked her to marry him, Dill added: "A proposal of marriage is no invitation to visit my house uninvited -- and the offer was declined.'' Later, Dill told the court that a drunken Junos had disconnected the telephone call without his permission and had subsequently slapped and kicked him.

"I just looked at her,'' he said. "She came up to me and slapped me. As I walked past her she kicked me. I felt the kick in my behind.'' Dill then said that Junos had followed him into the living room and slapped him again before beginning to turn over his furniture.

"She overturned two lamps, a floral arrangement, tapes and a bookcase.

Anything that moved she knocked over.'' Just before closing statements were made, Dill denied having punched Junos, claiming that he merely immobilised her in an effort to drag her outside.

The defendant, who has served on the Human Rights Commission for the past few years, also said that two scratches on Junos' nose were the result of the ensuing struggle.

In their statements, defence lawyer Saul Froomkin QC called his client "a man of peace'' and characterised his actions as self-defence, while Sgt. Osborne, who is jointly prosecuting the case with Crown Counsel Miss Jo-Dina Pearman, said that Dill wilfully punched Junos, causing her to fall.

Magistrate the Wor. Cheryl-Ann Mapp is expected to render her verdict on July 14.