Woman found sister's body on bed, murder trial hears

A woman found her sister's body on a bed after pushing past the victim's "scared" partner in the house, a court has heard.

Stephen Sexton, 38, denies raping and murdering 37-year-old Joanna Derkacz in December 2023, as well as behaving in a coercive or controlling manner during their relationship.

Her sister Arleta Derkacz told Portsmouth Crown Court how she found the body at the couple's home in Waterlooville, Hampshire.

She said she fled the house when he produced a knife, adding: "If I had froze, I don't know if I'd be sitting here."

Derkacz said she rang the doorbell two or three times at the property in Nevinson Way on 28 December before entering and finding Sexton on the stairs.

"He looked like he was hiding something," she told the jury.

"I said, 'I'm going upstairs'. He had an evil look on his face. I just pushed him away.

"He didn't allow me up the stairs. I pushed him away with my left hand.

"I thought he had beaten her up but she was dead."

Sexton, of Cherrywood Gardens in Totton, looked "shivery" and "scared" during the encounter, Derkacz added.

She found the body, came downstairs and fled after seeing Sexton with a knife which he put to his wrist, the court heard.

Previously, the court heard Sexton 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.

Post-mortem examinations found three broken bones in Joanna Derkacz's neck and DNA evidence of a sexual assault, prosecutors said.

Sexton fitted a tracking device to her car, checked her emails and broke her phone and laptop in the year before her death, the court was previously told.

In a police interview, Arleta Derkacz reported a previous strangulation attempt, the jury heard.

She said her sister described in a phone call in mid-December how Sexton had placed his hands around her neck before she pushed him away.

The prosecution claims a dispute that month marked a turning point in the relationship after Joanna Derkacz asked him to move out of their home.

The trial continues.