A self-styled Harley Quinn has told a court how her boyfriend became obsessed with the Joker, dyed his hair green and painted his face white before trying to strangle her to death.

Jenny Dalton, who dresses on social media as the DC Comic villain, said she introduced Anthony Yewman to the Batman villain and he became fixated with the character.

Yewman, 45, is accused of trying to murder his partner by strangling her twice after she threatened to leave him.

Ms Dalton - who is nicknamed 'Harley' by her friends - said their relationship turned 'toxic' due to 'trust issues' and in an attempt to be 'left alone' she attended a women's refuge.

But 'spiteful' Yewman, who has a number of face and hand tattoos, could not 'accept' what he was hearing and relentlessly tried to continue contacting his then-girlfriend.

In one attempt to win back her affections, Yewman graffitied 'Joker Loves Harley' on a wall near a refuge where Ms Dalton was staying to try to escape him.

After Yewman 'persuaded' Ms Dalton to return home, he allegedly tried to twice strangle her to death. He is now facing trial for attempted murder.

Southampton Crown Court heard Ms Dalton and Yewman first came across one another on Facebook.

After exchanging messages, Ms Dalton said there was 'an instant thing' between the couple and she thought he was a 'really really cool guy'.

"I like Harley Quinn, like my social media character is Harley Quinn and so when I first met him, he didn't know about the Joker," Dalton said during a police interview.

"He never spoke about it or anything, I don't remember him having anything to do with the Joker.

"Then, after a bit of time with me, he would face-paint and start to be the Joker.

"But, he didn't have the right mentality for it. He's not insane.

Prosecutor Matthew Farmer previously told the court the couple had been in an 'on-off relationship' for two years in which there were 'numerous break ups'.

In May 2023, Ms Dalton had to call the police because Yewman had 'refused to leave the garden' of her property in Fordingbridge.

Then, in June Ms Dalton tried to leave Yewman and attended a women's refuge in Seaford, East Sussex, to 'get away' from him and to be 'left alone'.

But, during her stay one of the other attendees' approached her and said 'There's pictures of you just all and down the road'.

Ms Dalton walked near the accommodation and was confronted with graffiti, reading 'Joker Loves Harley', on the walls nearby.

"He printed pictures of me and stuck them on lamp posts around so I was pulling them down," she added.

Yewman 'persuaded' his then-girlfriend to leave the safe house and they returned to her home in Fordingbridge.

Just two days after returning, on August 30, Yewman allegedly strangled Ms Dalton so 'severely' she was left unconscious on her bedroom floor.

She recalled hearing a 'crunching' noise as he applied pressure to her neck and the court heard she woke up to Yewman blowing into her face trying to resuscitate her before he walked over to a mirror and started cutting his neck.

He later tried this again and despite her 'mercifully surviving the attack' - she remains 'severely traumatised'.

Ms Dalton described her relationship with Yewman as 'toxic', 'not conventional' and 'awful' - and admitted they were both 'damaged'.

"It was just two people messed up together," she told the court.

The mother said the two 'just kind of existed alongside each other', adding: "Some of the happiest times in my life were just being with him.

"Even though one half of me knows it's wrong and I couldn't be, one half of me wants to be with him so I guess I don't know what's wrong with me."

Yewman, from Romford, Essex, denies attempted murder as well as the alternative charges of GBH with intent, and intentional strangulation.

The trial continues.