JEALOUS and possessive Luke Jones “literally” beat Natasha Bradbury to death in her own home just hours after she confessed to sleeping with another man, a jury heard today.

Jones, aged 33, then waited until her body was “freezing cold” before calling for an ambulance to her flat in High Street, Haverfordwest.

Then, said Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, he made up a story about her smashing up her own home in Imperial Court and falling over.

Jones, of Haven Drive, Milford Haven, denies murdering Miss Bradbury in the early hours of February 22 and is on trial at Swansea Crown Court.

Mr Lewis said Jones and Miss Bradbury, 27, had been in an “on off” relationship for three years.

In the days leading up to her death the relationship was under strain, he said, and text messages between them showed Jones was suffering emotionally.

Mr Lewis read to the jury dozens of messages that were “clearly personal and sent in the belief that no-one else would ever see them.”

“This is not like Facebook,” he added. “They are private messages between two people in a relationship.”

But they illustrated, alleged Mr Lewis, a man feeling jealous and possessive and willing to put emotional pressure on Miss Bradbury to keep their relationship going.

“It is for you (the jury) to assess. But we say that at times he expresses love, at others distress.”

On February 19 Jones, a pipe welder, told his supervisor he was unwell and made an emergency appointment with his doctor.

Jones told him he had “anger problems” and complained of losing his temper too easily and was referred to an anger management course.

“You might want to bear that in mind when considering the events that followed,“ Mr Lewis told the jury

Miss Bradbury spent the night of February 20 at the home of her friend Rhiannon Watts at Priory Road, Milford Haven, and Jones tried 26 times to contact her by telephone, including 13 attempts between 4am and 5am on the 21st.

Jones, said Mr Lewis, had already sent Miss Bradbury a text message reading, “I’m told you are seeing someone else.”

Mr Lewis said Miss Watts and Miss Bradbury had been joined that night by two brothers, Daniel and Darryl McGuckin. Miss Watts was in a relationship with Daniel and Miss Bradbury slept with his brother, Darryl.

The following morning, said Mr Lewis, Miss Watts told Jones what had happened and Miss Bradbury also contacted him to say, “Look, I’m sorry. I slept with someone last night.”

The following day Jones sent messages to friends, one of which read: “I can’t believe she’s done that. My Head’s in the shed but I’m passed caring. I loved her and gave her everything but what do I get.”

Jones later drove to Miss Bradbury’s home and between 8pm and 10pm she sent “sexual and flirtatious” messages with Darryl McGuckin.

“That takes us to ten pm,” said Mr Lewis. “What then?”

NEIGHBOURS HEARD LOUD NOISES

Neighbours of Natasha Bradbury listened to more than two hours of “shouting, swearing and the noise of a flat being smashed up” the night she was allegedly beaten to death by her on-off boyfriend.

But they only ever heard the voice of a man, said Paul Lewis QC.

That man, it is alleged, was Luke George Jones

Mr Lewis said Lisa Smith, who also had a flat in Imperial Court, High Street, Haverfordwest, heard the noises from between 11.30pm and about 2am and thought Flat A, where Miss Bradbury lived, was being smashed up.

Another neighbour, Timothy Down, became so concerned he thought about calling the police but decided “not to get involved.”

“He could hear swearing and shouting. But he heard only a man’s voice,” added Mr Lewis.

The prosecution argue that Jones was in the process of beating Miss Bradbury to death, or had already done so.

Because at 2.48am Jones told a 999 operator that Miss Bradbury was already “freezing cold and her lips are blue.”

Mr Lewis played to the jury a recording of the 15 minute telephone call, which ended when a paramedic took the telephone from Jones and told the operator, “We could do with the police.”

It took Jones at least twelve attempts to explain to ambulance control where he was.

The operator instructed Jones on how to try and resuscitate Miss Bradbury by placing one hand on top of the other on her breast bone and pumping hard.

The operator could be heard telling Jones, “Pump hard. One, two, three, four. Again, one, two, three, four.”

The operator was interrupted by an ambulance crew who had arrived in Imperial Court but could not find “Flat A,” which was, in fact, a four storey high building.”

Then, a voice could be heard asking Jones, “How long has she been lying there.”

Jones replied, “For about an hour.”

The paramedic took the ‘phone from Jones and asked, “Is that ambulance control”

The operator told him that ambulance control had gone off the line.

Paramedic:“We could do with the police here.”

Operator:“Do you want me to put you through?”

Paramedic, “No, we are dealing with a patient.”

JONES REFUSED TO ANSWER POLICE QUESTIONS

Luke Jones refused to answer questions from police investigating the “murder” of Natasha Bradbury at her flat in the centre of Haverfordwest.

And the prepared, written statements he later handed over were dismissed today as “nothing more than a pack of lies intended to avoid the consequences of what he had done to her.”

Paul Lewis QC told the jury that Jones “largely” answered none of the questions put to him by police.

But he later provided a number of prepared statements.

“He said he used no violence at all towards her and that she had suffered the injuries as a result of falling over,” added Mr Lewis.

“In essence, he appeared to be saying that her extensive injuries were accidental.

“If he maintains that account it will be for you to decide how it was she suffered the injuries that resulted in her death,” he told the jury.

“You will consider his intentions and his state of mind.”

Mr Lewis said the truth was that Jones had inflicted on Miss Bradbury a savage attack that had caused widespread and fatal injuries.

Miss Bradbury suffered extensive, blunt force injuries to her head, face and body. She suffered fractures to her neck and a wrist and there was evidence of injury to her brain.

Her heart had been bruised and there had been bleeding in the sack containing the heart.

There was also an “extensive” laceration to her liver that had led to massive bleeding into her stomach area.

“In a nutshell, he beat her to death in her own home,” added Mr Lewis.

NATASHA’S BLOOD STAINED FLAT

The jury was provided with a pictorial walk through of the blood stained flat where Natasha Bradbury met her death.

The prosecution say she died after a savage attack by her on-off boyfriend, pipe welder Luke Jones.

Despite the address, said Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, it was in fact a four storey high building.

As the photographs unfolded, blood stained items came into view.

There were blood stains on the door leading to her bedroom, and blood on the lip of the sink in her en-suite bathroom.

A bin had been overturned and the contents strewn around the bathroom. “You will hear more about that, about the contents, in due course,” Mr Lewis told the jury.

There were bloody hand marks on the banister of the stairs leading to the second floor kitchen, where “shattered crockery etc” could be seen.

There was blood on the kitchen walls, on a tissue lying on a work surface and in the kitchen sink.

There was also blood on a discarded cigarette end.

Mr Lewis said there was more blood on the banister of the stairs leading to the third floor, which contained the lounge where Miss Bradbury’s body was found.

In that room there was blood on the floor and a wall in addition to “widespread” damage.

A glass table had been smashed, as had a television, and there was glass around Miss Bradbury’s body.

The trial, expected to last two weeks, will continue tomorrow.