Missing Polish mother was dismembered and buried in bin bags by partner, court hears

A Polish mother who was found buried in a garden after being missing for nearly 15 years was murdered, dismembered and placed into bin bags by her girlfriend, a court has heard.

Jurors were told that Anna Podedworna, 40, tried to cover up the murder of Izabela Zablocka with a series of “deliberate, calculated, gruesome and time-consuming acts” after killing her in 2010.

Podedworna, who the court heard had a “stormy and turbulent” relationship with Ms Zablocka, is charged with murder between August 27 and October 1 2010, preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice between August 27 2010 and June 2 2025.

The defendant, of Boyer Street, Derby, listened in the dock wearing a grey sweatshirt and black glasses, helped by a Polish interpreter, while prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC opened the case against her at Derby Crown Court on Thursday.

Mr Aspden told the jury of seven women and five men that Ms Zablocka, who was aged 30 at the time of her “violent death”, had grown up in Trzebiatow in north-west Poland.

He said: “In her early 20s, Izabela married a local Polish man and she gave birth to a daughter who they named Katarzyna.

“Sadly, the marriage between Izabela and her husband did not last, they separated and soon afterwards Izabela began a sexual relationship with this defendant, Anna Podedworna.”

open image in gallery

The jury heard the two women rented a flat in Poland together before moving to the UK in search of work in 2009, initially living in London before moving to a small terraced house in Normanton, Derby.

Both Ms Zablocka and the defendant worked in a poultry factory called Cranberry Foods, the court was told.

After a phone call to her mother on August 28 2010, the jury heard, Ms Zablocka’s family, including her daughter who was still living in Poland, did not hear from her again.

Mr Aspden said: “The Crown’s case is that shortly after Izabela’s final telephone call to her mother, this defendant Anna Podedworna murdered her.

“Having done so, she then dismembered Izabela’s body by cutting it in half with a large knife, trussed it up with electrical tape, placed these now bloody human remains in black plastic bin bags, and buried them in the back garden.

“A section of concrete hardstanding was then laid over the top to hide Izabela’s filthy, makeshift grave.”

The prosecutor added: “The defendant’s post-murder cover-up involved a series of deliberate, calculated, gruesome and time-consuming acts which she carried out with resolve and purpose over a period of several days.

“Precisely how and why the defendant murdered Izabela only she now knows and, for obvious reasons, she will never reveal.”

The court heard that Ms Zablocka’s family reported her as missing to the UK police in November 2010 before they contacted Polish authorities in January 2011.

When the police spoke to Podedworna, she told them she did not know where Ms Zablocka was, which Mr Aspden said was “all lies and a continuation of the post-murder cover-up”.

The prosecutor said that “mounting pressure” caused Podedworna to “crack” last year when a Polish television journalist flew to the UK to interview her.

She then emailed Derbyshire Police to say she had evidence and she later went to a police station, the court heard.

Mr Aspden said of her conversation with the police: “The defendant admitted she had killed Izabela.

“However, now, and for the first time, she claimed that Izabela died by accident during a violent confrontation between them and that during that violent confrontation she had done nothing more than defend herself.

“This new and freshly-created claim of self-defence was yet another lie by this defendant to conceal her guilt, to cover up the murder and to deceive and hoodwink those around her.”

Ms Zablocka’s remains were found by police in the garden of a property in Princes Street, Normanton, where the women had lived together, the jury heard.

Podedworna denies all the charges against her.

The trial continues.