A man accused of murdering his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend with cling film only helped her kill herself before trying to end his own life, a jury heard yesterday.

Ahsan "Ali" Hassan's defence barrister told the court Zofia Sadowska was in a difficult place after a tumultuous relationship with the father of her son.

Diana Ellis QC said: “You may feel Zofia must have had much inward turmoil and confusion about what was the state of her life.

"It's difficult when you end up living with someone and having a child with someone you've met, just before travelling to a foreign country and seemingly having little in common.”

The Reading Crown Court trial had previously heard 28-year-old Hassan carried Miss Sadowska's "limp and completely floppy" body into a taxi after allegedly killing her with cling film in a Micklefield kebab shop.

He admitted manslaughter by killing the mother-of-one in what he described as part of a lovers' suicide pact, but he denies a charge of murder.

The Pakistani man was in the dock with his childhood friend from Pakistan, Usmar Ansar, who denies lying to police to protect his friend after feeling "very guilty" about having sexual relations with Ms Sadowska behind Hassan’s back.

Related articles:

The jury were previously told Ansar, of Dashwood Avenue, High Wycombe, was filled with jealousy when he saw his ex-girlfriend go to a hotel with another man days before the alleged murder on September 18.

Prosecutor Alan Blake claimed it was the "final insult" before Hassan, tricked her to go to the Dennis’s kebab shop in Gayhurst Road where he had worked previously and still had the keys for.

"He must have taken Zofia into the disused restaurant on Gayhurst Road under false pretences," said Mr Blake.

"There it appears he restrained her and used physical violence upon her before asphyxiating to incapacity and quite probably to death.

"Having incapacitated her or killed her he put her in a taxi and took her back to the home address, maintaining the charade that she was drunk and asleep."

Bucks Free Press:

However, in her closing speech yesterday, Mrs Ellis painted a different picture for the jury and said he only helped his ex-girlfriend end her own life.

"Although it has been suggested he forced her by binding her to have non-consensual sex and although it is right to comment he showed an embarrassment about discussing that area of their lives, there is no evidence that she did not willingly have sex with the man she said she had been deeply physically attracted to," she said.

"You know that on this occasion Mr Hassan has admitted he assisted her in bringing her life to an end.

"He assisted by the pressure he put on her nose and mouth to prevent the air from getting in and accepts his arm may have exerted pressure to hold her down on her neck."

The barrister said after Ms Sadowska was dead Hassan tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists but denied this was because he had no choice.

"In his room he slashes his wrists," she said. "The blood lost may have been in excess of a litre and a half which is very, very life-threatening.

"Was he left in a position once she had died that he felt no choice but to take his own life? The answer to that is no. He had a very large sum of money, no ties, and contacts in this country and in Ireland.

"Had he killed and murdered her in the restaurant in Gayhurst Road there's no reason he couldn't have run away, but he didn't."

Hassan denies one charge of murder while Ansar denies one count of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues tomorrow.