Murder victim suffered neck fractures, jury told

A woman suffered three neck fractures due to the application of significant force shortly before she died, a murder trial has heard.

Joanna Derkacz's body was found at her home in Waterlooville, Hampshire, in December 2023.

Stephen Sexton, 38, denies raping and murdering the 37-year-old, as well as behaving in a coercive or controlling manner during their relationship.

Her injuries were likely to have been caused by deliberate compression to the neck within 12 hours of her death, a pathologist told Portsmouth Crown Court.

Sexton was responsible for the injuries and "his actions... caused her death", prosecutors previously told the jury.

Giving evidence, Prof Anthony Freemont said the fractures happened "almost certainly at the same moment".

The professor of osteoarticular pathology said they had gone "all the way through" three small bones, according to images from a high-resolution CT scan.

The fractures were on both sides of the neck and were unlikely to have been accidental, he told the jury.

They would have been painful and would have caused difficulty swallowing, the professor added.

The absence of clotting around the injuries suggested Derkacz had died soon afterwards, he said.

Previously, the court heard the victim was murdered during the early hours of 28 December, soon after asking Sexton to leave their shared home.

The defendant did not call police or an ambulance after her death and instead twice left the house in an attempt to visit sex workers in Portsmouth, the jury was told.

Derkacz's body was found by her sister Arleta on a bed at the property in Nevinson Way.

The defendant, of Cherrywood Gardens in Totton, produced a knife, causing the sister to flee the house, the court heard.

The trial continues.