Cameron Street, 21, is on trial after denying the alleged attack at his home in November 2024.
The woman had told the court that the pair had been at La Couture Inn before going to Street’s home and Street said this was true. He had drunk four or five pints of cider and was ‘tipsy’, but she had consumed seven to nine pints and was drunk and unsteady on her feet.
He had supported her as the pair left the pub. They had both been in good spirits, laughing and joking as they walked to his home nearby.
Once there they had gone upstairs to his room, but as he walked ahead of her he heard a bang and turned to see that she had stumbled and hit her head on the stairs. She said it really hurt and was holding her head, he said. He noticed a red mark on her face as he helped her up and into his room.
Soon afterwards he said the woman bit him on the arm. Although her nipping him playfully was normal, this had been harder than usual, he said.
The woman also accused him of taking a small amount of cannabis from her bag, which he denied, and suggested that she go home.
She was shouting at him and his mother came into the room to tell them to keep quiet. Street was angry and threw his phone against the wall before going outside for a cigarette. He returned to get his lighter and found the woman on the phone to the police. He was arrested soon afterwards and accused of the serious assault. The woman was later found to have suffered a fracture to her left orbital floor, the bone beneath the eye socket, and needed treatment at Southampton General Hospital.
In cross-examination by Crown Advocate Jenny McVeigh, prosecuting, Street denied that he had grabbed the woman, hit her with a bag of rubbish or punched her in the face.
When shown police body-worn camera footage of the woman after the alleged attack, in which her nose could be seen to be bleeding, he said he had not noticed this when he returned to the room.
The case continues.