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The ex-boyfriend of an escort denied plotting to “roll a punter” after a pensioner was robbed and imprisoned in her cellar.

Anthony Miller, 49, claimed he had nothing to do with ambushing the “lonely” man, who was rescued from the home of sex worker Susan Garside on November 4 last year.

Yesterday a jury at Liverpool Crown Court heard the pensioner was wrestled to the ground by three masked men who cut him with a “machete like” knife and threatened to stab his eyes out.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was gagged and blindfolded, had his hands and feet bound and was bundled onto a “stinking” mattress in the cellar where he remained for three hours.

Miller and 53-year-old Garside accept the attack took place at her home in Roxburgh Street, Walton, but deny involvement and are facing trial for robbery and false imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court.

Today Miller, of Hebden Street in Croxteth, told a jury he had been in an tumultuous relationship with Garside for around five years.

The jury heard on the day of the incident Miller was banned from contacting Garside by police bail conditions after an accusation of assault.

Under questioning from John Weate, defending, Miller said he had been drinking at Garside’s home on the day, despite the bail conditions, when he heard a knock on the door.

Miller said: “As soon as I started to open the door the door came in and I got pushed over, and someone stood on my hand, I got a couple of kicks to the ribs and I got dragged to the kitchen.

“I was kicked a few more times and I was given a drink to drink and that’s all I can remember.”

The defendant said he believed he had been drugged and had no memory of the complainant arriving or being robbed.

He said he remembered nothing from the afternoon until he was kicked out of a car, along with Garside, from where he went to his mother’s address and slept in his van on the driveway as she would not let him in.

Miller was arrested at the Adelphi hotel two days later, and initially told police he had never been at Garside’s address on November 4.

But the court heard Garside, also arrested at the Adelphi, said the masked men who attacked the pensioner were friends of Miller’s and that the group had been drinking together before the incident.

She told police one of the men had threatened her with the knife during the robbery and she had been “terrified.”

Frances Hertzog, representing Garside, suggested Miller was a “violent, possessive man” who “ruled her through fear” and ordered her to remain silent about the incident.

She said: “The reality was you could do with (Garside) what you wanted to, because you knew she would be scared of you.”

Miller denied this was the case and claimed he had never been violent to Garside.

He told the jury he lied to police as he did not want to be locked up for breaching his bail conditions as he was an alcoholic and was “craving drink.”

Henry Riding, prosecuting, said Miller had “called in the heavies” to attack the complainant.

He said both Miller and Garside “had a problem” because the complainant was rescued from her house, and that one of them “had to be responsible” for setting up the ambush.

Mr Riding suggested Miller was forced to change his story because Garside had “blabbed her little mouth off” in interview and placed him at the scene.

Mr Riding said: “These other two men, how did they know (the victim) was going to turn up?”

Miller replied: “You are asking the wrong person.”

Mr Riding asked: “Are you suggesting there’s a group of people who do this professionally, rolling the punter, just wandering around Walton on the off-chance a punter might turn up at the house of an escort?”

Miller said: “It’s possible.”

Yesterday the jury £500 was taken from the account of the victim on the day he was attacked, while his car was found crashed that evening.

(Proceeding)