A 33-year-old man has gone on trial accused of the "destruction" of his unborn baby, attempting to murder his pregnant teenage girlfriend and raping her.
The girl's mother left Downpatrick Crown Court in tears as the jury was told how her 19-year-old daughter was beaten and stabbed 30 times and later gave birth to a stillborn child while recovering in hospital.
The Bangor man accused of the "prolonged and brutal assault of a very violent kind" cannot be named for legal reasons.
Prosecuting counsel Mr Terrence Mooney QC warned the jury it would be hearing "distressing and cruel" facts that may inflame their "human emotions".
Mr Mooney said the couple, who had a very stormy relationship, returned to their flat above the shop they ran at about 2 a.m. on November 10th, 1997. He claimed that for the next two hours, the girl, about six months pregnant, was punched, kicked and beaten with a wooden stair spindle and a brick, stabbed with a screwdriver and knife and raped by her boyfriend, who told her he wanted her dead.
She managed to raise the alarm by making a 999 call to police after her boyfriend was dragged from the bedroom by a man who had called to see him.
Mr Mooney also claimed her boyfriend told the man he needed to get away and was pulling cash from a safe with his bloody hands when police arrived. Later during interview the man claimed he couldn't remember anything from 6 p.m. the previous evening or about attacking his girlfriend and when charged said he was "sorry to hear about the death of my child".
The trial continues today.