A woman who bled to death after her throat was cut from ear to ear had told her sister police would only respond once her ex-boyfriend had stabbed her, a court has heard.

Alice Ruggles, 24, had first reported Lance Corporal Trimaan "Harry" Dhillon to police 10 days before she was found lifeless in the bathroom of her flat in Gateshead last October.

He ignored an official warning to cease contact and sent his ex a parcel through the post.

She informed Northumbria Police, Newcastle Crown Court heard, but while the initial response to her first complaint was "brilliant", she was unhappy with what happened following the second call.

In a statement, her sister Emma, a British Army officer, told the court she advised Ms Ruggles to contact the police, but she replied she already had.

The statement said the Sky employee told her sister: "They will f****** respond once he has f****** stabbed me."

Dhillon, a signaller with the 2 Scots, denies murder.

The court heard how Dhillon, who was born in India, started an intense relationship over the internet with Ms Ruggles while he was serving in Afghanistan.

She split with him after she found out he had been messaging other women on the dating site Tinder, jurors were told.

She said she was frightened when he travelled to Tyneside from his barracks near Edinburgh and repeatedly knocked on her door late at night, then tapped on her bedroom window and left flowers and chocolates on the sill.

The court has heard a phone message he then left her, repeatedly saying he did not want to kill her.

Ms Ruggles, who grew up in Leicestershire and stayed in Newcastle after studying at Northumbria University, made a police statement on October 2 in which she said he sounded "crazy" on voicemails, and described him as obsessed.

She said: "I feel harassed, alarmed and distressed by this male.

"I want him to leave me alone. I want nothing more to do with him.

"I am terrified of his actions. I am being stalked and I want it to stop."

She said it was affecting her concentration and work, adding: "I don't feel safe in my own home."

The court has heard Dhillon was given an official police warning to stay away from his ex as a result.

A friend of the defendant and Ms Ruggles told the jury that when they were going out with each other, Dhillon made his girlfriend feel self-conscious.

Gen Crozier told the court: "He said some stuff about the size of her nose, hair on her forearms.

"He just made her feel really self-conscious - just not the person she really was."

Ms Ruggles told people Dhillon had hacked into her Facebook account while they were together and Ms Crozier said that led her friend to immediately delete messages she received or sent.

Ms Crozier said Ms Ruggles told her that on her first date with Dhillon, he had claimed a Nando's waitress was "trying to hit on him".

She later told Ms Crozier she thought he had been trying to put his date on edge.