Murdered woman 'seconds from home'

Geraldine Palk was stabbed more than 80 times

A 26-year-old woman was murdered in a frenzied attack - stabbed more then 80 times - just yards from her home, a court has heard.

The body of Geraldine Palk - a 26-year-old shipping clerk - was found in a stream on the edge of a playing field near her home in Fairwater, Cardiff, on December 21, 1990.

Geraldine Palk's body was found in a shallow stream

Bristol Crown Court heard how Ms Palk, on her way home after a night out celebrating with colleagues, had been sexually assaulted and her throat cut.

Mark Hampson, 35, from Taff's Well near Cardiff, denies the murder.

Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, the victim had taken a taxi home with three others after finishing her last day at work before Christmas and celebrating with friends in Cardiff.

She was dropped off a short distance from the family home just before 0100 GMT, he said.

"She was quite literally within seconds of safety, but she never got there and her last day at work was the last complete day of life because, as she was walking those last few steps, the defendant was in her way," he said.

She had been the subject of a brutal, punishing and sustained attack. There were a number of grotesque features of that fatal killing

Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting

The prosecution allege that Mr Hampson, a carpet fitter, threatened Ms Palk with a knife and forced her to walk to nearby playing fields where he made her strip.

"He then sexually assaulted her and then murdered her in a frenzied attack, stabbing and slashing her body more than 80 times."

The jury were told how people living around the playing fields heard "a horrible single female scream".

Mr Harrington said defence wounds to her hands indicated she had tried to fight off her attacker, but it was thought she had died a short time after she was struck on the head.

Her body had then been dragged from the centre of the field - where the attack took place - to a stream near Fairwater Leisure Centre where children found it the following day.

"She had been the subject of a brutal, punishing and sustained attack. There were a number of grotesque features of that fatal killing," he said.

Mr Harrington said members of the jury would hear evidence that Ms Palk had bitten her attacker in the genital region.

"That may be the thing which prompted the defendant to embark on that frenzy of violence. It turned a knife wielding rapist into a murderer," he told the court.

Mr Harrington then outlined the 'painstaking' police inquiry into the murder almost 12 years ago.

The murder took place near Fairwater Leisure Centre

Although detectives had DNA from sperm found in Ms Palk's body, a massive screening programme of thousands of men in Cardiff had failed to find a match.

But, he said, exactly 10-and-a-half years after the murder, Mr Hampson was arrested.

DNA profiling had found a match to samples taken from the victim's body, with the probability that it was that of someone else put at one in a billion.

Interviewed by detectives, Mr Hampson said he recalled having a chance sexual encounter with a woman in the Fairwater area just before Christmas 1990.

But he denied they had had full sex, saying afterwards the woman had walked off alive and well.

Later he said Mr Hampson changed his story, saying they had tried to have sex with Ms Palk but had failed, implying it was a coincidence that his sperm had been found in her body, and that someone else had killed her.

"His account was lies," said Mr Harrington.

The trial continues.