A woman
found dead in a suitcase in a London canal may still have been alive
when the bag was thrown into the water, a court has heard.
The
body of Marta Ligman, 23, was found in the case floating in the Grand
Union Canal in Little Venice in north west London in May.
Her
boyfriend Tomasz Kocik, a Polish national of Harlesden, north-west
London, is now on trial at the Old Bailey accused of her murder.
Marta Ligman was found dead inside a
suitcase in a London canal in May. She may still have been alive when
the bag was thrown into the water, a court heard today
Prosecutor
Tim Cray said the body of the victim, a delicatessen shop assistant, was
found 10 days after it had been dumped and showed signs she had been
badly beaten.
She
had suffered bruising all over her body and broken ribs and was either
'dead or dying' by the time she was dumped in the water, the jury was
told,
Mr Cray said: 'Those injuries are consistent with her having been attacked and badly beaten.
'If the
initial attack had not killed her outright, the fact that she was then
zipped into a suitcase and left inside would also have proved fatal
because of the effects of being left in such a constricted space.'
On
Friday May 1, Kocik, 38, was seen on CCTV dragging a large dark
suitcase half a mile from his home to the canal towpath early in the
morning before returning home with wet trousers over an hour later,
jurors were told.
The
trunk was 'extremely heavy' and he appeared to be struggling to move it
as he made his way through the streets of North West London, the court
heard.
Miss Ligman with her boyfriend Tomasz Kocik, who today went on trial for her murder at the Old Bailey
The court heard Kocik was 'obsessively jealous' and violent towards his girlfriend, who he met in Poland
Some 24 hours after the discovery of her body, police identified Miss Lipman as being the girlfriend of Kocik.
The couple had met online in a dating chatroom while Miss Ligman was living with her family in Poland.
She travelled to London to live with the defendant in 2012 but, by the time of her death, the relationship had soured.
Mr
Cray told jurors that Miss Ligman's colleagues described Kocik as an
'obsessively jealous controlling boyfriend' who was violent towards her.
'For
example they saw her with unexplained injuries such as black eyes and
facial bruising. In addition he would wait for her every day outside
work and get angry if he didn't know where she was.'
Police at the scene where the body was found in May this year. Kocik denies Miss Ligman's murder
The
prosecutor said that her Polish identity card and bank card had been
found burned and cut up by a member of public along the route that Kocik
had made when he disposed of her body in the canal.
He
then failed to report her missing until after the body was discovered
on May 10 and had been reported in the news, the court heard.
Her
friends and family in Poland had meanwhile been 'very worried' they had
not heard from her and kept asking him to go to the police.
Kocik denies murder. The trial continues.
Source: Daily Mail
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