JULIE GALLAGHER MURDER: Sister's gruesome discovery

Deborah Bradshaw (48) fought back tears as she told a jury how she was on the phone to her anxious mother when she made the shocking discovery at Julie’s terraced

Eastwood house on a Saturday morning in March last year.

Earlier she spoke about Julie’s premonition of what might happen at the hands of her husband George when she told her: “He’s going to get me.”

Mrs Bradshaw recalled how she arrived at her sister’s home before finding her sister dead.

JULIE IMPRISONED IN ATTIC FOR TWO WEEKS, JURY TOLD . . . See this week's Advertiser.

“I struggled with the keys, I opened the door and I could see Julie sat upright, head on one side and her hands laid across her stomach,” Mrs Bradshaw said at Sheffield Crown Court.

“I was still on the phone to mum. I just said: ‘Mum, please come round.’

“There was a lamp on, the light was dim in the room and it was very hot.

“I realised what had happened straight away. There was no doubt that Julie had been there for a while because her pyjamas were blood-soaked.

“Nothing seemed out of order, there were a couple of cans of lager down by her side as if she was just settling down and the TV was still on.”

Julie’s estranged husband George Gallagher (56), of Eldon Road, Eastwood, denies stabbing her to death at her home in Foljambe Road.

Mrs Bradshaw spoke about how her distress when, a few months before the murder, she read a letter headed: “Just to remind me why I left” which Julie had written to herself, detailing beatings she allegedly received at the hands of Gallagher.

“Julie had written: ‘I may be lonely but at least I’m not a punchbag.’

“It went on to say how sad he made her life and the horrible things he had done to her.

“I couldn’t read it all because it was really, really upseting.”

Mrs Bradshaw recalled how Julie, who she said overcame a rare blood disease to “live life to the full,” told her she was frightened of Gallagher, known as Juddy, whom she finally left after he put her in hospital from an attack in November 2009.

She went with her mother to see Julie in hospital and found her “a mess,” crying and upset and in a state of shock.

Julie was embarassed and begged her to take her mum home. But after leaving Gallagher, Julie later confided in her about his alleged violence towards her, she said.

Julie said she was going to withdraw her statement about the November assault on her for which Gallagher had been arrested because she was scared what he might do.

“She said I didn’t know the half and about the miserable life she had for a long time,”

Mrs Bradshaw went on.

Julie slept in the attic at the home she shared with Gallagher, who would not speak to her for days and often locked her out of the house, forcing her to sleep in the car or go to Deborah’s, the jury heard.

“I asked her if he had threatened and she said he didn’t have to, she knew what he was capable of,” Mrs Bradshaw said.

“She just wanted to get on with her life, make a home for herself and live in peace—something she had not had a lot of for a long time.

“She just wanted him out of her life and for him to leave her alone and let her get on with it.”

The trial continues.