Student terrorised flatmate by chasing her with a knife and pouring vodka in her eyes

A student at The University of St Andrews has been found guilty after he terrorised one of his flatmates by pouring vodka in her eyes, chasing her with a knife and setting fire to her room.

Ewan Harvey, 25, was a geography student at The University of St Andrews and carried out the attacks on his flatmate Amanda Meum between September and November 2020.

Harvey denied the attacks but was found guilty of acting in a threatening or abusive manner by chasing his flatmate with a knife, placing it near her throat, throwing it and stabbing it into a table.

He was also found guilty of “culpably and recklessly” setting fire to an empty chocolate bag in her room, of assaulting her by pushing her into a wall and pouring vodka in her eyes as well as throwing a glass bowl at her, placing her in a chokehold, pushing and kicking her.

St Andrews is consistently named one of the best universities in the UK. In the 2023 Times Good University Guide it beat Oxford and Cambridge to the top spot. It is also famously the university where Prince William and Kate attended and met.

Harvey claimed he had a close relationship with his flatmate Amanda Meum but denied they were in a relationship and said he had a long-term girlfriend.

He denied causing her injuries and wept in the dock after being found guilty. He is due to be sentenced in March and is currently on bail in London.

The court heard that Harvey left her covered in bruises and carried out behaviour which forced the flatmates to eventually throw him out of their uni halls.

Management student and flatmate Sebastian Flame said in court he thought Harvey was “unhinged”.

He said Harvey carried out a lot of attention-seeking behaviour and was eventually confronted by his flatmates about severe bruising on Amanda’s legs. Flame said he initially felt Harvey had been showing off, but became extremely concerned when he pulled the knife and refused to put it down.

He said: “Amanda was sitting on his lap. She was saying the same as myself, that he should stop, and she was asking him to hand the knife over to her. He did not. Ewan started chasing her round the table with the knife. Ewan was a bit crazy, it was probably part of the act he was trying to portray. It was very crazy and alarming.

“Amanda was worried but was trying to look cool in the situation. There were nervous giggles. It wasn’t a very big table. It was perhaps four times round the table. He then put the knife to her throat. It was about one centimetre away. It was not touching her, but it was very close. It lasted five to ten seconds.

“I think he then put the knife on the table because at that point everyone was shouting at him to put the knife down. He was unhinged. That incident felt a lot more full-on than being a joke. We were shocked. It was worrying because it was a dangerous situation for everyone. I spoke to Amanda. She said she was shaken up but she didn’t think Ewan would hurt her.

He continued: “In December I went up to her room to see her. Very quickly into that conversation, she showed me a myriad of bruises across her legs, and laughing, said ‘Look what Ewan gave me’. The humour was her way of saying the truth. She didn’t know how else to say it. It wasn’t funny to anyone. They were everywhere on her legs, and big.”

He said all the flatmates confronted Harvey and told him he had to leave the flat as soon as possible because they were concerned for Amanda Meum’s safety.

Harvey told the flatmates that he “would never hurt her, that he loved her and that he was very sorry. He also said he didn’t do the bruises and that they were accidents.”

The flatmate added: “We were worried for Amanda. We were concerned to have an individual who would do that living in the house.”

Harvey left the flat five days later, but returned to the student accommodation Christmas, which is when incidents were reported to police.

As well as the four incidents Harvey was found guilty for, a charge of attacking another flatmate Ethan Shapiro by forcing him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and restricting his breathing was dropped during the trial.

He was acquitted of assaulting and injuring Amanda Meum by knocking her to the floor and dragging her down the stairs by her ankles.

In court, Sheriff Brown told Ewan Harvey: “I was not impressed by your evidence which I considered to be unconvincing and self-serving. I did not consider your evidence to be credible or reliable and nothing said by you in your evidence caused me to have a reasonable doubt about the Crown case.

“The position of your defence is that the Crown witnesses have conspired and, in effect, fabricated or embellished evidence and have been telling lies. I believed their evidence.”

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Featured image before edits via Canva.