Cellar victim 'attacked before'

Dorothy Carre was last seen by her GP in March 1999

A woman alleged to have been stabbed to death by her boyfriend and buried in a cellar suffered previous violent abuse at his hands, a court heard.

Frederick Lawlor, 54, denies murdering Dorothy Carre, 56, in 1999 by repeatedly stabbing her at a house in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Her body lay undiscovered at Equitable Street for eight years.

Manchester Crown Court heard Mrs Carre previously turned up at a friend's house covered in blood.

Angela Dutson told Manchester Crown Court that Mrs Carre also said Mr Lawlor had made her "do things" for his friends and was so scared of him that she did not want police to be called.

Mrs Dutson said she and her husband were woken one night by screams and somebody banging on the window.

Stab wounds

They found Mrs Carre covered in blood and dressed in a nightie and slippers.

She said she had been hit and kicked by Mr Lawlor.

Mrs Dutson said: "She said that Fred had beaten her up and made her do things for him and his friends.

"She wouldn't say what they were but said they were disgusting things.

"She just said he made her do dirty things to his friends and she felt sick."

Mr Lawlor was arrested in March this year after police found the remains of a body under the cellar floor at the house.

A post-mortem examination showed the bones had at least 10 stab wounds to the vertebrae.

DNA testing provided "extremely strong" evidence that the remains were those of Mrs Carre.

She was last seen alive by her GP in March 1999.

The case continues.