Woman feared Mehajer would kill her family, court told

A woman alleging Salim Mehajer violently assaulted her on multiple occasions went to police in tears because of death threats he made to her and her family, a court has been told.

Mehajer, who is defending himself against seven assault charges, claims the woman accused him of domestic violence to have criminal proceedings against herself dropped after she was charged alongside him in an unrelated matter.

The woman told Detective Senior Constable Lainie Shipway that she was too scared to talk to police before he was arrested in late 2020 because he had made threats to kill her and her family, according to a police report read out in NSW District Court on Thursday.

The claimant said her parents were considering selling their house and moving away in an attempt to escape Mehajer's threats.

In a recorded police interview played in court, the 36-year-old former Auburn deputy mayor earlier accused the woman of sending fake text messages from his phone and concocting the assault allegations as a result of delusions she experienced.

He is accused of punching the woman's head 10 times in his car, squeezing her hand so hard it cracked her phone screen and covering the woman's mouth and nose with his hand, stopping her breathing until she passed out in separate incidents over multiple years.

While being interviewed at Silverwater jail in January 2021, Mehajer told Senior Constable James McGahon the woman was diagnosed with psychosis and schizophrenia, suffered from PTSD, was fascinated with blood and had a habit of lying.

Mehajer, who is representing himself in the trial, remained perfectly still throughout, staring down as a recording of the interview was played before the jury.

"I don't want to put her through cross-examination but you will see in the next few months that she is misleading," he told police.

He was asked to read out text messages sent between the woman and himself on the day he allegedly threw an object at her, leaving her arm with visible bruising, and stopped her breathing until she passed out.

"I have to be honest with you, when you were threatening me the other night I was terrified and so many things were going through my head," she wrote.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," he replied, followed by love heart emojis.

Mehajer denied sending the messages, telling Sen Const McGahon the woman set him up as part of her "plan of attack".

"Every time I went into the shower she would access my phone and do ridiculous things," he said.

"She would go through my phone and I never thought anything of it at the time but now everything adds up."

The trial resumes on Friday.

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