Prostitute wife 'killed after row'

A man told a jury today that he heard somebody apparently being strangled in a flat where a neighbour is accused of murdering his prostitute wife.

Byron Williams, 30, described a violent hour-long dispute during which aspiring model Kirsty Grabham, 24, was allegedly murdered.

Her husband, Paul Grabham, 26, of Swansea, South Wales, is accused of killing his wife during the row at their flat in March last year.

Catherine Broomfield, the victim's mother, rushed out of court sobbing as she heard details of what the prosecution claim were her daughter's last moments.

Neighbour Mr Williams, 30, gave evidence for the prosecution today at the murder trial at Swansea Crown Court.

Grabham denies a single charge of murder.

Mr Williams lived in the flat directly below the Grabhams in Rosehill Terrace, Swansea.

Previously, the jury has heard the couple were both prostitutes who had met at a massage parlour in Bridgend where Mrs Grabham was working.

They were married within weeks of meeting at the end of 2007 and later advertised their sexual services together on a joint website.

The couple had been to a nightclub on March 27 but had apparently argued about Grabham using dogging web-sites to set up meetings for sex with strangers.

He had returned home early alone and Mrs Grabham had got back to the flat by taxi much later, the jury has heard.

Mr Williams said today that an argument between the two began almost as soon as Mrs Grabham got home.

He said the couple regularly had noisy arguments lasting up to an hour in which objects were thrown and doors slammed.

He said the noise had been so loud during the early hours of March 28 he almost went upstairs to complain.

"I'm now very sorry that I didn't do that," he told the court.

I was very ill that night and to be honest with you I had heard so many arguments with them I could not see this one being any different.

"I could not think that he was killing her up there, or that anyone was being killed."

His comments came after he had described being "at the end of my tether" because of the noise.

He told the court that during the row: "I thought I heard Kirsty. It was like somebody had a hand over her mouth as she was trying to shout something out.

"I cannot really describe it. It was like a high pitched noise. It is like when you watch TV and you can hear someone being strangled, it was like that.

"I was convinced that it was Kirsty's voice."

He added: "The more I have thought about it, it could have been Paul crying. But it was an hysterical thing anyway.

"It was definitely hysterical, whatever it was."

He said the flat upstairs had gone quiet for a few hours before noise and banging started again.

"I was at the end of my tether. I felt like I wanted to go up there and say something because the noise was ridiculous," he said.

"There was a lot of banging like there was a lot of draws being opened and slammed, frantically searching through them.

"That went on for about an hour. Then I heard something being dragged across the floor. It's a laminated floor and you can hear everything."

Earlier the court heard evidence from Kerri Inger, 23, the partner of Mr Williams.

She was also at his flat at the time of the argument and claimed it had lasted up to two hours.

She said she evetually fell asleep and was awoken later by loud banging and what she thought were sweeping noises.

"Most of it sounded like furniture being moved. I heard a sweeping sound or a hard brush sound. The other noise I heard sounded like wet object being dragged."

She added: "You know when you slip on the bath and it makes a squeaking sound? It sounded like that, like something was being dragged."

Christopher Clee, defending, put it to her that the argument had never happened, a suggestion she dismissed.

Grabham claims he was asleep on the sofa and did not see his wife come home. He reported her missing two days later.

Within a week her dead body was found in a suitcase dumped alongside the M4 near Bridgend.

The case continues tomorrow.