Allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse were levelled at a 37-year-old hairdresser by his former lover who is charged with dousing his bed with gasoline and setting it on fire.

During the first day of Veronica Leslene Dill's attempted murder trial in the Supreme Court, her ex-boyfriend Graham Robert Stancliffe took the stand.

Stancliffe, who is a hairdresser, was allowed to sit while he testified because his legs had been severely burned during the October 13, 1993, incident and were still painful.

Dill, 29, of Farmstead Lane, Sandys, is charged with attempting to murder Stancliffe, causing him grievous bodily harm with intent to burn and arson.

The court heard that Dill and Stancliffe were living together at his North Shore, Pembroke, home at the time of the incident.

And their relationship had deteriorated significantly to the point where she complained to friends that he treated her badly.

Stancliffe said that Dill moved in with him during the summer of 1993 and lived with him continuously until the incident.

That day (October 13, 1993) he said they went for lunch before he went to the Robin Hood to watch a soccer match.

She picked him up around 6 p.m. and went home. There they talked and drank beer. He said he stayed at home the rest of the evening, while she went out at least twice.

Stancliffe said Dill returned around 10 p.m. and things appeared to be normal.

They talked, had sex in the living room, and he went to bed.

He said later he thought he heard her come to bed but she got up and went to the kitchen where he saw her open the refrigerator door.

"Veronica came toward the bedroom,'' he said. "She was shaking a juice jar.

"I was lying down. I was watching her because I had a feeling that she was going to do something because she didn't speak.'' Stancliffe said he thought she was going to throw water on him so he sat up and knocked the jar from her hand.

Some of its contents fell onto his body, to the left side of the bed and onto the floor.

He said he did not know what the liquid was, but he saw a flame and soon everything was engulfed.

"My shorts were on fire, so I took them off and used them to put it out and used a bed sheet to cover the fire on the floor.'' In a Police statement read out in court, Dill did not deny purchasing the gasoline from an Esso gas station which she kept in the kitchen.

But she said that Stancliffe had abused her sexually and physically during the relationship and she wanted to scare him.

She alleged that Stancliffe had burned her with cigarettes, had anal sex with her and used a vibrator because he said he wanted to cause her "pleasure and pain,'' on at least two occasions.

Dill said she got the idea to use petrol from watching the movie "The Burning Bed.'' In the statement she said she poured the gas over the bed and he jumped up after he saw the flame.

"I don't remember doing it. He was screaming I don't remember doing it...I told him I was sorry. This wasn't meant to happen.'' The trial continues in Supreme Court before Chief Justice the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward.

Mr. Delroy Duncan and Mr. Juan Woolfe appear for the defence while Peter DeJulio and Charlene Scott appear for the Crown.