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PTC woman says she sought help despite husband's warningsTue, 04/28/2009 - 5:27pm
By: John Munford
Photos of injuries displayed to jury; trial to resume Wednesday morning A Peachtree City woman testified today that her husband brutally beat and sexually assaulted her on a number of occasions before a series of assaults at their home Jan. 20 that sent her to a hospital for four days. Pamela Ellicott said she decided to leave their home that day despite her husband’s threats that he would hunt her down, torture and kill her if she ever told anyone about the beatings. Asked why she decided to seek help, Ellicott replied that she felt if she hadn’t done so “I would not be alive today.” Michael William Ellicott is on trial for five counts of aggravated assault (family violence), six counts of aggravated battery (family violence), two counts of aggravated sodomy, one count of rape and one count of false imprisonment. The jury was shown photos today that were taken during Pamela Ellicott’s hospital stay which showed bruising on several parts of her body. The bruises were the result of the assaults on Jan. 20 and several days prior, Mrs. Ellicott said, claiming that her husband kicked and punched her while also striking her with drumsticks in the soundproof home theater room of the couple’s home on Portico Place. Pamela Ellicott said her husband was responsible for breaking both her wrists, one of which she recalled hearing crack as she deflected a blow he intended for her head. She also said she still suffered from an injury to her buttocks which required surgery and makes it painful to walk. One of the photos showed Mrs. Ellicott with a blank stare on her face as a hospital staffer tended to her. Prosecutor Warren Sellars asked Pamela Ellicott what she was feeling when that photo was taken. “Pain throughout my whole body,” she replied. “Worrying about my children.” At one point during the Jan. 20 assault, Michael Ellicott received a phone call and left the room, Mrs. Ellicott said. After he left the room, Pamela Ellicott said that she took the opportunity to grab a cordless phone from a nearby room before heading upstairs to escape the home. She ran to a nearby neighbor's house and police were called to the scene. Pamela Ellicott also testified about several deviant sexual acts her husband forced her to perform on him. She also said on several occasions that he forced her to have intercourse against her will. Although the physical assaults from her husband began about a year and a half before the Jan. 20 incident, Mrs. Ellicott said she stayed with her husband and had not planned to divorce him because she still loved him. “It wasn’t until the last year that I stayed out of fear,” Mrs. Ellicott said. |