‘Monster’ butcher ‘cracked’ after chopping girlfriend in two and stuffing her in bin baggage

A butcher who murdered her girlfriend before dismembering her body and burying it in the garden has been jailed. Anna Podedworna cut her girlfriend in half with a kitchen knife and buried her in a “filthy, makeshift grave” more than 15 years ago.

Podedworna has been jailed for life and told she will serve a minimum of 20 years and 116 days before she can apply for parole.

The 40-year-old said she felt “like some type of monster’ after dismembering the mother-of-one’s Izabela Zablocka body in their shared terraced house in Normanton, Derby, the court was told. Podedworna killed Zablocka before trussing her up “like a chicken” with electrical tape and burying her remains in bin bags.

Derby Crown Court heard that Zablocka lost contact with her family in August 2010 and was reported to the police as missing.

Prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC said that “mounting pressure” caused Podedworna to “crack”, and email the police last year, when a Polish television journalist flew to the UK to interview her.

In June, officers found Ms Zablocka’s remains under concrete hardstanding in the garden of a terraced house in Princes Street, Normanton, Derby, which she shared with Podedworna after they moved to the UK from Poland together.

Jurors unanimously convicted Podedworna, of Boyer Street, Derby, of murder, preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice.

Katrina Wilson, co-prosecutor, read out a victim impact statement from Kasia, Izabela’s daughter.

She read: “As a young child I was incredibly close to my mother so to lose her out of my life at such a young age left me with soul-crushing uncertainty.

“I was constantly wondering where my mum was and why she stopped calling me. I felt abandoned and became a fearful and closed-off child. I could not focus on my studies which led to poor grades and problems at school.

“To this day I feel the consequences of my mother’s sudden disappearance. In my heart I always knew my mother didn’t leave me on purpose and that gave me the strength to spend my entire adult life looking for answers.”

Mr Aspden previously told the jury that Podedworna tried to cover up the murder with a series of “deliberate, calculated, gruesome and time-consuming acts” over several days.

Instead of calling for an ambulance when she could not find a pulse, the court heard that Podedworna decided to cut Zablocka in half with a knife and bury her in the garden.

The jury was told “considerable force” would have been needed to cut Zablocka’s body in half, and that her legs had been bound together before she was buried.

Podedworna told jurors she was acting in self-defence when she hit Zablocka with a horse figurine, and had believed her partner was going to kill her.

She had told jurors: “I was just terrified, I felt fear. I thought I will bury her. I took the decision I would bury her in the garden.

“I wanted to pick her up whole. I just did not have the strength to pick her up. I had an idea to cut her down. It seemed the only way… to cut her into two.”

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