A woman “trapped” inside an aggressive and controlling relationship bled to death after a violent sexual assault, a jury has heard.
Paul Irwin, 50, of Whitehaven, Cumbria, has denied the murder and sexual assault of Tiffany Render, 34, on 22 March.
On the opening day of Irwin’s trial at Carlisle crown court, the prosecutor Iain Simkin KC said Render was an “extremely vulnerable woman who was trapped inside an aggressive, violent and controlling relationship” with the defendant.
He said paramedics were called to Irwin’s flat in Whitehaven shortly before midnight and “remarked that Tiffany was surrounded by blood-soaked bedding”.
She was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. Simkin said her injuries were sustained during a sexual assault and “resulted in almost immediate bleeding and she bled to death inside the defendant’s home”.
Simkin outlined violent incidents that he said had taken place during Render’s relationship with Irwin.
On 17 July last year, Render phoned the ambulance service saying she was increasingly concerned about Irwin’s conduct.
During the call, Irwin struck her “multiple times with a wooden rolling pin”, Simkin said, causing marks to her abdomen. She was also slapped, strangled and had her hair pulled, the jury was told.
In February, Render alleged that she had been assaulted again with a forceful kick to the backside by Irwin. This, she told police, came against a background of his binge drinking, cocaine use, increasing control and repeated aggression towards her.
After the alleged February assault, Render left the flat and said she was told by Irwin that he would burn photographs of her children if she did not return, the jury heard.
In a statement, Render told police: “I have said to him if you burn those photographs then I will kill you. He has then stated: ‘Come up here and I will kill you, I’m telling you now that I’ll fucking kill you.’”
The jury was told that Render alleged Irwin exercised “full control” over her life, limiting access to money and contact with her children, inspecting her phone and telling her what she could and could not eat.
Simkin said it was anticipated that Irwin would claim Render consented to sex and that her death was “an accidental result of sexual activity”.
He told jurors: “The prosecution submit that you will be able to reject that assertion.
“We will invite you to consider the nature of their relationship, the background to this offence, the violence which the defendant previously used upon the deceased and the extreme nature of the injuries themselves; which, taken together we say, is evidence which torpedoes Mr Irwin’s claim that Tiffany consented to the penetration.”
The trial continues.
