A Sandbanks property developer on trial over claims he strangled his estranged wife at their £3million home has told a court he was acting in self-defence, calling her an “Amazonian” woman with kickboxing experience.
Paul Pressland, 63, is accused of assaulting Gemma Martin, 52, during an argument about their divorce in December 2024, after the couple had hosted her parents for a Sunday roast.
Giving evidence to the jury, Pressland said he could not recall putting his hands near Ms Martin’s neck. He said he had touched her chest in an attempt to defuse the confrontation.
Pressland denies a charge of intentional strangulation and claimed the injury to Ms Martin’s neck may have resulted from a wetsuit worn during a charity sea swim the day before.
At Salisbury Crown Court, he insisted that he had been the victim rather than the aggressor. He described Ms Martin as “Amazonian”, telling jurors she was fit, strong and involved in boxing and personal training.
Prosecutor Harriet Summerhayes asked Pressland whether he was maintaining that he had not caused the mark found on Ms Martin’s neck.
He replied: “No I didn’t. She had been swimming in the sea with a wetsuit with a neck round it. It’s a very faint red mark.
“I didn’t strangle my wife. She chose three times to come back in to continue the argument.”
Ms Summerhayes also put it to him that he had punched Ms Martin in the back of her ribs.
Pressland said: “I don’t believe I have punched anybody in my life, certainly not a woman, and I didn’t punch Gemma that night.”
Gemma Martin, 52, is pictured outside court. Her estranged husband described her as an ‘Amazonian’ woman who did kick boxing
Paul Pressland, 63, is accused of attacking Ms Martin during a heated row over their divorce after a Sunday roast dinner with her parents on December 1, 2024
Ms Summerhayes said: ‘You were the aggressor weren’t you?’
Pressland said: ‘I was not, I was the victim. I didn’t use excessive force, I did what I felt was necessary to placate the situation and defend myself against somebody who was attacking me.
‘Gemma has been described as Amazonian by friends. She’s very fit, she works out, she does boxing and PT. I was defending myself.’
The court previously heard that on the day of the alleged strangulation Pressland confronted Ms Martin because he had heard from a friend that she was filing for divorce.
It led to a heated argument that saw Ms Martin throw her Ugg slippers at her husband, who she claimed had been unfaithful in their marriage.
Prosecutors say the developer reacted by pinning her against the door of their en suite and strangling her, making her fear for her life.
Pressland is alleged to have placed his hands around her throat and squeezed until her eyes ‘bulged’ before she dropped to the floor.
The court heard Pressland went to Bryanston, a private boarding school in Dorset, before becoming a chartered surveyor and working in London’s Mayfair district.
By the age of 30 he had his own property business and now runs multiple companies.
He bought the £3million Sandbanks home in 2017 but did not move in full-time until 2022 when he and Ms Martin got engaged. This was because he had another house where he stayed when he was with his four children from a previous relationship.
The couple, who had been together for 10 years but only married for two, lived in the Sandbanks home with Ms Martin’s two sons from a previous relationship.
Pressland said he had an ‘inkling’ she had spoken to lawyers but only found out she had actually filed for divorce from an office ‘gossip’ a few days before the incident.
He claims she told him ‘there’s two ways to deal with this – the easy way or the expensive hard way’, meaning court hearings and lawyers.
Pressland’s defence barrister, Graham Gilbert, presented Ms Martin with a handwritten list with the initials GP (Gemma Pressland) at the top.
It included a £1million house, £60,000 annual income, vehicles for her and her children and half the net assets of a company she was listed as a director of.
Mr Gilbert asked her: ‘Is this a wish list of what you wanted out of the divorce?’
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Ms Martin replied: ‘We discussed between the two of us, how amicably we could split, we sat down together and wrote this down.
‘I did see a solicitor because I didn’t trust he would agree to this, he verbally agreed.’
Mr Gilbert said Ms Martin also made a list of her husband’s businesses and assets, including properties owned by other family members and gifts to his own children.
He asked if she was told by solicitors that if parties made allegations of domestic violence they could qualify for legal aid. She replied ‘no’.
Pressland told the jury the roast dinner was a ‘pseudo Christmas’ to celebrate early with Ms Martin’s parents before they went to Thailand for three months.
He said he had opened a bottle of red wine to pour some in the gravy for the roast beef and had ‘a glass or two’ while cooking.
He ‘wasn’t keeping tabs’ of who drank what but said five bottles of wine were drunk between six people over the course of about five hours.
After her parents left and her sons had gone to their rooms, he and Ms Martin sat at the kitchen table and had a ‘heated’ conversation. Pressland said his wife was ‘aggressive’ and belittling his relationship with his children.
Mr Gilbert asked if ‘aspersions as to behaviour during the marriage were made on both sides’ and Pressland said yes.
He said as the conversation was ‘going in circles’ he decided to go to bed in the spare room and went upstairs alone.
He said Ms Martin later burst in swearing and calling him names before throwing her Ugg slippers at him, with one hitting him in the face and the other on his shoulder.
Pressland told the jury he returned the Ugg slippers to their bedroom and returned to the spare room before she returned and continued to attack him.
He said: ‘She struck me with her fists, then went out and came back and did it again. She grabbed my hair, being vain I didn’t want my hair wrenched out so I went with the flow, if she pulled I went with it.
‘I was being pulled around by my hair, backwards and forwards towards the master bedroom. I said ‘you’re hurting me, can you let go’. I tried to stop the pressure on my head by grabbing her arm to pull her towards me to stop the pull.’
He claimed she hit her back on the door handle, with the impact causing a bruise and other injuries she later asked her son to take pictures of.
He said injuries were also sustained in the ‘tussle’ when they both fell on the floor and he grabbed her by the shoulders and chest in an attempt to calm her down.
Ms Martin, an interior designer, has told the court that Pressland pushed her, grabbed her arms and punched her in the back of her ribs.
She said he then pinned her against the wall and squeezed her throat hard so that she couldn’t breathe and her eyes ‘bulged’, before she dropped to the floor.
Ms Martin said she screamed and began hyperventilating when he let go, with her son Henry, 21, witnessing her ‘very fast breathing’.
He told the court that he did not witness any violence but went running to his mother’s aid after hearing her ‘barbaric’ scream.
Henry said: ‘I came out after I heard a loud scream from my mother. It was barbaric, I have never heard a scream like it.
‘She was very fast breathing, screaming every two seconds – I have never seen a human being in that state before, it was really distressing to experience that.’
Defence counsel Mr Gilbert put it to Ms Martin’s sons that there had been no scream. They both said that was incorrect.
Ms Martin is alleged to have initially told Pressland that she would not tell anyone about what happened as long as he granted her a divorce.
But two days later she went to play tennis with her then-19-year-old son Henry and decided to report the incident to police online.
The trial continues.