Man 'strangled woman when she tried to leave'

Kieron Goodwin is on trial at Bristol Crown Court

A man fatally strangled his partner on the night she tried to leave him after plying her with cocaine, a court has heard.

Kieron Goodwin, 33, is on trial at Bristol Crown Court for the murder of Olivia Wood at his flat in Frome in Somerset, on 30 July last year.

Mr Goodwin is accused of conducting a campaign of controlling behaviour against Ms Wood during their three-month relationship. He denies murder and causing grievous bodily harm, but has admitted a charge of coercive control of her.

On the night she died, Ms Wood had packed her belongings into a suitcase and rucksack, suggesting she was preparing to leave, the jury heard.

Ms Wood, an ecologist based in Liverpool, was described by her employer as "hard working and professional, highly thought of by her colleagues".

She never formally moved to live with Mr Goodwin but spent a lot of time with him in Frome.

The court heard that the relationship quickly turned controlling, and over the course of their relationship she transferred more than £6,000 to him - much of which was spent on his cocaine habit.

Mr Goodwin also pressured her into having sex with another man and performing sex acts on camera against her will, WhatsApp messages between them showed.

Shortly before her death, Ms Wood rang her employer to say she needed to take some time off because of her partner's mental health and that he was threatening to kill himself.

'Deeply unhappy'

Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam KC said that as far as investigators know, Ms Wood never spoke to anyone about the situation she was in, but notes on her phone revealed she was "deeply unhappy".

Messages from the defendant's phone revealed he was buying cocaine almost every day, and he was sending her out to collect the drugs, he said.

Mr Goodwin called 999 at 2:50 BST on 30 July to say Ms Wood was not breathing, the court heard, and he was given instructions in first aid.

But during the call he was simultaneously deleting hundreds and photos of videos from his phone.

Mr Vaitilingam told the jury they might find it "troubling" that a man trying to save someone's life decided "he needs to delete potentially incriminating material from his phone".

A post-mortem revealed Olivia had potentially fatal level of cocaine in her system, and the hyoid bone in her neck was fractured - an injury often associated with fatal neck compression.

The pathologist also found bruising in the shape of parallel lines to her neck, consistent with a belt of about 3cm in width.

Mr Goodwin told police he strangled Ms Wood as part of consensual sex, and that afterwards she had taken some more cocaine.

He claimed that it was only at this point she started fitting and lost consciousness.

The prosecutor said that the strangulation, in addition to the cocaine, "played a large part" in Ms Wood's death.

Mr Goodwin has further admitted three counts of coercive control against three other women.

But he denies five counts of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of assault by penetration.

He also denies four counts of rape and one of intentional strangulation.

The trial continues.