Breaking news update: Man admits killing of girlfriend in Mirfield

Jevgeni Matjuhha, 23, admitted the manslaughter of Nadija Ondzule at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, but denies murder.

Ms Ondzule’s strangled body was found on a bed in the couple’s flat in Oddfellows Street, Mirfield, on February 2.

The court heard how she became pregnant last November, but had an abortion on January 18.

Alistair MacDonald QC, prosecuting, said Matjuhha, who was arrested in Estonia in February, told police that he did not know about the abortion until after it happened.

But according to friends of the couple, Matjuhha had agreed to the abortion, Mr MacDonald said.

When Ms Ondzule, 36, came home from work on January 20, Jevgeni was waiting for her.

They argued and Matjuhha said he punched Ms Ondule, a Latvian national, on the nose before strangling her, Mr MacDonald said.

He then put her body on the bed and covered it with a duvet, withdrew cash from Ms Ondzule’s bank account and booked a flight to Amsterdam online.

Mr MacDonald QC said: “What it shows is that within a very short time of the killing, the defendant was thinking straight.

“He was thinking so clearly that he decided to clean up. He had decided where to go and intended the flee the UK.”

Matjuhha also called his girlfriend’s friends to say she was going away.

He flew to Amsterdam on January 21, then travelled to the Ukraine on January 24.

The next day he went to Estonia, then on February 1 called Marina Seklucka, a friend of Miss Ondzule’s, saying he had killed his girlfriend.

Before that, Matjuhha had been using Ms Ondzule’s SIM card to phone her friends and colleagues and pretend that she was still alive.

On February 2, Miss Secklucka went to the couple’s basement flat with police, where they found Ms Ondzule’s body and a note of confession written by Matjuhha in Russian.

The defendant was later found in a park near Viljandi in Estonia suffering from hypothermia and claiming to have taken a drug overdose.

He was taken to hospital, arrested upon his released and subsequently extradited to the UK.

The case continues.