Ex-Ireland rugby player Paddy Wallace burned his estranged wife’s favourite blanket and took sneaky pictures of her through a window, it has been claimed.

Tina Wallace made a series of claims as she gave evidence in court on Friday against her rugby star husband who denies a charge of harassing her.

Ms Wallace claimed she had felt “scared and intimidated” by Paddy’s behaviour while his lawyers claimed she had sex with him a week earlier in a bid to rekindle their broken relationship.

A Sunday Life reporter was the only journalist present as Tina Wallace appeared in the witness box to give her dramatic account and be cross-examined by Paddy Wallace’s lawyers who claimed her motives were “purely financial”.

Paddy and beautician Tina split up last year after almost 12 years of marriage.

After Paddy moved out of the couple’s plush £500,000 family home in Stormont, east Belfast and into his parents’ house in Holywood in early 2016, Tina accused Paddy of harassing her on May 5 and 6.

In the witness box she said that on May 1 she was put “under pressure” by the 30-times capped Ireland international to go out for dinner.

The former model said that during the date at Little Wing pizzeria, she “politely told him it wasn’t going to work out”.

Defence barrister Richard McConkey refuted her claim and argued that Tina had been trying to rekindle the relationship.

She replied: “Under no circumstances were we ever rekindling our relationship.”

The lawyer put it to Tina Wallace that she had sex with his client just a week before the Little Wing dinner.

She said she had “absolutely no recollection of that”.

The court heard that after dinner Tina got a taxi into Belfast to meet friends and ended up at Ollie’s Nightclub, where she saw Paddy.

Tina said Paddy shouted across the bar at her male friend, “Are you trying to f**k my wife?” The defence said there were no witnesses to verify her claim. The court heard Paddy then sent the mother of his children a series of messages and voicemails, asking her whereabouts and demanding she called him “or there would be consequences”.

She claimed to have received a sinister picture of her favourite blanket covered in lighter fluid in the sink of the kitchen of the home they own together. Tina said she replied to the message saying she was at a friend’s house.

She told the court: “I know that he was aware of how much the comfort blanket meant to me.

“I’d had it since I was a child and he knew that it was of high personal value.”

Tina, who runs the Paddy Wallace Fund for Autism with her ex-husband, told the court she was “too scared to go home”.

“I was intimated and scared, and I felt pushed and cornered,” she said.

Tina, 41, claimed to have returned home to “black soot on the surfaces and scorch marks up the sink and no blanket”, but didn’t report it “because the level of intimidation was so much” and she was “scared of getting him into trouble”.

Sitting in the dock, Paddy Wallace shook his head at the allegations, and his barrister stated that while police had a picture of the alleged incident, there was no real evidence.

Tina claimed that four days later Paddy appeared at the kitchen window of the family home, smiling and “looking menacing” while taking photos of her with a male friend, who “did not want to be involved” in the case, despite being a witness.

The court heard there was no photographic evidence to back up these claims.

Paddy was later arrested and cooperated with police, but gave a “no comment” interview.

A female police officer, who gave evidence, said she could hear “banging on the window” when Tina Wallace called.

“There has been no explanation from the defendant as to why he was there,” said the prosecutor.

Defence barrister Richard McConkey said: “There was no order in place, it’s their joint home and they aren’t divorced yet, so he was allowed.”

Mr McConkey said: “Mr Wallace knocked on the door of the house to get his electoral card, but you wouldn’t answer because you had a man there so then he knocked the window.

“Your motivation for false allegations is for a financial settlement and the message your mother sent proves that.”

The court heard that in the email Tina’s mother told Paddy, “If you agree, she will withdraw her statement.”

Tina claimed to have been unaware of her mum’s message.

“As a Christian, I am not telling lies,” she told the court before moving to the public gallery where she sobbed in the arms of her mother.

Paddy chose not to give further evidence at the hearing last Friday, “as all statements are accurate and he’s not lying”, according to his barrister.

Judge Fiona Bagnall scheduled the next hearing for January 18 to allow time to read the relevant case law which will determine the severity of the charges.

Belfast Telegraph