A marine engineer from Totton murdered his partner after their relationship broke down and she told him there was "no going back", a court has been told.
Stephen Sexton is alleged to have killed recruitment consultant Joanna Derkacz, 37, in the early hours of December 28, 2023 after their relationship of three years broke down and they began sleeping in separate rooms.
He then did not call police or an ambulance after her death, the court was told.
Jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court were told on Friday the couple had argued on the night of Miss Derkacz's death over a self‑help book given to her by a male friend, Zak.
The book contained an inscription from Zak written in Polish and three 'x's, which prosecutors say fed Sexton’s growing paranoia about her friendships.
In text messages sent the evening of her death shown to the court, Miss Derkacz said Sexton had abused her “mentally and physically”, cheated with multiple women, and warned she would call police and seek a restraining order if he was aggressive again.
She said: "There's no going back. Not only can I not trust you but I don’t feel safe around you.”
Sexton, who the trial had previously heard has a history of assaulting previous partners, had been with a friend at his house, but he was not prepared to accept Miss Derkacz standing up to him and so returned to the house they shared at 12.20am, the court heard.
It is the prosecution's case that he then raped and killed her.
The court was told at about 12.46am, after a spell with no phone activity, Sexton searched online for ways to fall asleep and “eliminate subconscious negativity” before calling Miss Derkacz’s mobile and then moving on to browse escort websites.
Nicola Shannon KC, prosecuting, asked: "Why was his first response to find sex workers?
"He was sexually aroused that night, but was he also aroused by killing?
"We would say that the act of killing her aroused a degree of excitement in itself."
Miss Shannon said Sexton then arranged to meet a sex worker, leaving at about 1.34am in Ms Derkacz’s white BMW and driving alone to Portsmouth while her phone travelled with the car, before making two short visits to flats and returning home around 3.08am, when he is alleged to have gone back to sleep beside her body.
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Miss Shannon continued: "It is inconceivable in that small house that he didn't know that Joanna was dead."
Meanwhile, Jodie Mittell KC, for Sexton, said that her client did not accept causing his partner's death.
Addressing the jury, she said: “Mr Sexton does not accept that he ever strangled, attempted to strangle or applied any pressure to get neck. Importantly, he does not accept that he caused her death.
"Crucially you will have to consider whether she was murdered at all - not just if Mr Sexton did it but if she died from someone else's acting at all."
Miss Mittell said she does not accept that neck compression caused Miss Derkacz’s death, arguing that an initial post‑mortem found no clear evidence of strangulation and that her previous seizure, cocaine and amphetamine use, and disputed neck fractures mean a drug‑related seizure could have played a part instead, the court was told.
The court was previously told by prosecutors that less than three weeks prior to her death, Miss Derkacz had warned police that Sexton could "flip" at any time and described him as "evil".
The trial continues. Sexton, of Cherrywood Gardens, denies murder, rape and coercive or controlling behaviour.
