Alena Grlakova murder accused had row with her on day she went missing, court told

A MAN accused of killing a Swinton mum who was working as a sex worker called her "a piece of s***" during a row on the day she went missing, a court has heard.

Gary Allen (47), of Bradbury's Close, Parkgate, is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of killing mum of three Alena Grlakova (38), who disappeared on Boxing Day 2018 and was found dead three months later.

He is also accused of killing sex worker Samantha Class (29) in Hull in October 1997 by stamping on and strangling her.

Mr Alistair MacDonald, QC, prosecuting, told a jury today (Monday) that Ms Grlakova had moved to the UK from Slovakia in 2008 and settled in Rotherham with her husband Villiam and three children.

She and Villiam separated in 2013 and she later developed an intimate relationship with a friend, Lucie Zimova, he said.

Mr MacDonald said they had argued and, in December 2018, Ms Grlakova had been looking for somewhere to live.

She had been at a low point in her life, Mr MacDonald said.

Her youngest child had moved to live with Villiam, which had caused her great upset, and she had begun to take drugs and work in the sex industry, said the prosecutor.

Ms Grlakova was last seen alive on December 26, 2018 and Villiam reported her as missing almost three weeks later, on January 15.

She had been making plans to return to live in Slovakia shortly before her death, Mr MacDonald said.

Ms Grlakova's body was not discovered until April 8 when it was found in a brook, the Old Slaugh in Parkgate, naked and "substantially decomposed".

A pathologist found a broken bone in Mrs Grlakova's neck and suspected an area of cartilage had been fractured, Mr MacDonald said.

The pathologist concluded that Ms Grlakova had been strangled.

Police examining Ms Grlakova's phone records found that she had had contact with Allen on Boxing Day.

Allen had been banned from contacting sex workers by a court order, so he had been arrested on January 26 2019, Mr MacDonald said.

Allen told police that he and Ms Grlakova had been "casual acquaintances" and that she had visited his flat in Parkgate many times to ask for money.

He said that she had come to his flat on Boxing Day asking if she could stay with him and he had thrown her out, Mr MacDonald said.

The jury saw CCTV footage which showed Ms Grlakova visiting Allen's flat.

Mr MacDonald played an audio clip of Allen and Ms Grlakova, taken from inside the flat, in which Allen called her "a piece of s***" and said she had treated him like "garbage".

Earlier, the jury heard that Ms Class had been stamped on multiple times, strangled to death, run over, and dragged along the ground.

Her body had been found face-down in the river bed of the Humber Estuary by a passing schoolgirl.

Nine months after Ms Class died, Allen had been stopped by police on suspicion of drink-driving and his DNA was taken, the court heard.

His DNA was found to match that found on Ms Class and he was arrested and charged with her murder.

Allen was tried for the murder of Ms Class in 2000 and was acquitted but the jury have been told that his acquittal was irrelevant and they would be hearing additional evidence about the alleged killing.

In 2010, Allen returned to live in the Humberside area and an undercover police officer was deployed to befriend him and assess the risk he might have posed to sex workers, Mr MacDonald said.

He later told the undercover officer that he had once strangled a sex worker and dumped her in the Humber.

"The Crown say that this was the clearest possible admission to the defendant's guilt in murdering Samantha Class and disposing of her body afterwards," Mr MacDonald said.

Allen denies two counts of murder.

The trial continues.