Anna Podedworna, 40 denies murder and claims self-defence after admitting she dismembered and buried Izabela Zablocka in a Derby garden after hitting her with a horse figurine
A butcher accused of murdering her girlfriend before dismembering her body and burying it in the garden said “it seemed the only way.” Anna Podedworna admitted striking Izabela Zablocka with a horse figurine before severing her body into two parts over 15 years ago.
The 40-year-old said she felt “like some type of monster’ after using a kitchen knife to dismember the mother-of-one’s body. She then buried her partner in the garden of their shared terraced house in Normanton, Derby, the court was told.
Podedworna denies murder, preventing a lawful burial, and perverting the course of justice. The court learned that Podedworna and Ms Zablocka, 30, were in a sexual relationship when they relocated to the UK from Poland, both working at poultry factory Cranberry Foods in Scropton, Derbyshire.
Jurors were previously informed that Ms Zablocka’s family last had contact with her in August 2010. Testifying today, Tuesday, February 3, Podedworna claimed that Ms Zablocka – a regular drinker – had held her by the neck and threatened to kill her two or three weeks prior to the fatal incident.
On the day Ms Zablocka died, Podedworna told jurors that the mother was ‘angry’ and questioned why she returned home late from work. The defendant alleged that Ms Zablocka seized her, pinned her against a wall, and strangled her until she found it ‘difficult’ to breathe, reports Birmingham Live.
Defence barrister Clive Stockwell KC asked Podedworna: “What were you thinking at the time?”.
Speaking from the witness box with a Polish interpreter, Podedworna responded: “That she was going to kill me”. She confessed that she was ‘terrified’.
Podedworna explained how she tried to push Ms Zablocka away but feared ‘that was the end… that she would kill me’.
She told the court: “At that time I was scared to be around the house… I was scared of speaking to her because I did not know what was going on.”
Podedworna expressed to the jury that she wanted Ms Zablocka ‘to leave me alone, to let me go’.
She described how she tried to grab Ms Zablocka’s neck before she picked up a figurine of a horse from a window and struck her with it.
She said: “I checked her pulse on the neck. I was trying to resuscitate her.”
Podedworna denied any intention to harm Ms Zablocka.
When asked why she did not call emergency services when she could not find a pulse, the defendant said she had ‘no witness’ and nobody would believe she was defending herself.
She believed she would ‘go to prison for the rest of my life’, jurors heard.
Podedworna stated: “I was 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.”
Podedworna revealed that she put Ms Zablocka’s remains in plastic bin bags and buried her in a hole in the garden. When asked how she felt doing it, the defendant replied: “That I’m some type of a monster.”
Podedworna, from Boyer Street, Derby, admitted she frequently clashed with Ms Zablocka, typically over financial matters or jealousy.
She alleged that on one occasion whilst they were residing in Poland, her partner left her with a black eye.
Ms Zablocka’s daughter had earlier testified to the court that she remembered Podedworna pursuing her mother with a knife in Poland – an allegation the defendant refuted.
The jury was informed that Podedworna was an experienced butcher whose duties included ‘skinning, deboning, and portioning out turkey carcasses using a large knife’.
The trial continues.