“He has taken my heart and stepped on it” - Gabriella Alban told her mother shortly before she was allegedly killed by Diego Novella — the man she loved.

 Alban’s mother‚ Doris Weitz‚ testified — in the High Court in Cape Town — that her daughter had said that Novella “did not care’’ for her.

 Weitz also said that Novella had ended their relationship by December 2014 when Alban returned to Los Angeles. She had been living with him in Guatemala.

 Novella stands accused of murdering Alban‚ a US marketing executive‚ in Camps Bay in 2015.

But his defence lawyer William Booth told the court on Thursday that Novella “cared for her and loved’’ Alban.

He said this is why Novella made “all the arrangements” for her to come to South Africa and to receive “alternative treatment” to cure her. She was diagnosed with Lyme Disease.

 But Weitz said her daughter had spoken to her at length about her unrequited love for Novella before she left for Cape Town to meet up with him.

 “Gabi told me in December (2014) and in April (2015) that they had broken up‚ that she was still in love with him but that he was not in love with her‚” she said.

 Booth requested that messages which were sent between the couple in Spanish be read out in court but Judge Vincent Saldanha would not allow it until a Spanish interpreter was available.

 The case continues with the testimony of the receptionist of the Camps Bay Retreat Hotel where Alban’s body was found.