A 35-YEAR-OLD woman accused of murdering her partner with a single stab wound to the heart appeared in court today for the start of her trial.

Karolina Rutkowska, of Cross Farm Road, Peasley Cross, but of Polish background, appeared in Liverpool Crown Court today, Monday, June 5.

The case is to determine whether or not she intended to harm or kill her partner of two years Mireslaw Kowalczuk, also from Poland, after he a suffered a wound to the chest on December 27.

The 12 men and women of the jury listened to prosecutor Ian Unsworth QC go through a timeline of events in the lead up to that night.

He said: “He (Kowalczuk) suffered a single stab wound to the chest which cut into his heart and sadly left his plight a helpless one.”

The couple were heard fighting that night in what neighbours described as “another very loud row", the court was told.

He stated that for some time prior to that evening the “relationship had sadly deteriorated" and that Each of them drank.

Mr Unsworth said: “It appears that those closest to them were aware of them arguing, often jealously being a factor.”

There were also allegations of affairs and neighbours stated that in the “days and weeks” leading up to the event that they had heard “arguments and disturbances coming from next door", the prosecution added.

The court heard how the day before the incident, Boxing Day, the couple had attended a house party where Rutkowska accused Kowalczuk of “touching the hostess inappropriately” before kicking him and leaving early.

He returned later and neighbours on both sides of the property heard them rowing, which disturbed their sleep.

The following day, one neighbour, Lee Worley, contacted police to report Kowalczuk appearing to be drunk “staggering” after exiting a car he had been driving then carrying beer or cider into the home.

Later on that evening, around 7pm, Mr Unsworth added that Mr Worley could “hear the man shouting really loudly" and to Mr Worsley’s ears he sounded as if he was in a real rage.

Mr Unsworth said: “He then heard a loud scream. It sounded like a woman screaming and this was then followed by silence.”

Mr Unsworth added that Rutkowska told the police: “He (Kowalczuk) has accused her of being unfaithful and was abusive towards her. He became physically violent to her and was assaulting her.

“She said that she held out the knife as she wanted to scare him adding that he lunged towards her and he somehow impaled himself on the knife.

“He fell to the floor, her own telephone was dead so she went to the neighbours to summon help.”

The prosecution say she then asked Mr Worley for a phone and he spoke to the 999 operator, saying: “She said there’s something wrong with her boyfriend. I think she has done something to him to be honest because it sounded like he was hitting her.”

He then went into the house next door with Rutkowska, finding Mr Kowalczuk on the kitchen floor and followed instructions from the operator before emergency services arrived.

A “black handled knife” about 15cm in length with “the blood of Mireslaw Kowalczuk on it” was found “not in his chest or on the floor but on the kitchen work surface", added Mr Unsworth.

Karolina Rutkowska denies the charge of murder

The case continues