Derby murder trial hears butcher skills used in alleged girlfriend dismemberment
A woman accused of murdering and dismembering her girlfriend before burying her in a Derby garden more than fifteen years ago was employed as a skilled butcher at the time, a court has been told.
Prosecutors allege that Anna Podedworna, 40, murdered Izabela Zablocka, 30, between late August and early October in 2010. The trial at Derby Crown Court heard that Ms Zablocka's remains were discovered last June in the garden of a terraced house on Princes Street in the Normanton area of Derby, where the couple had previously lived together.
Discovery after police email and gruesome allegations
The discovery came after Podedworna herself emailed Derbyshire Police to state that Ms Zablocka was buried at the property. Prosecutors described how Ms Zablocka was allegedly "trussed up like a chicken you would see in the supermarket" before her body was placed into bin bags and interred.
Gordon Aspden KC, prosecuting, told the jury on Thursday, January 23, that police inquiries into Podedworna's employment at the time of the alleged murder yielded significant information. "The police discovered that the defendant had been employed as a skilled butcher," he said. "Her work had involved skinning, deboning, and portioning out turkey carcasses using a large knife."
He added that "considerable force" would have been required to cut Ms Zablocka's body in half, and that electrical tape was used to bind her legs together prior to burial.
Background of the couple and alleged cover-up
The court heard that both women were Polish nationals who had moved to the UK and worked at the Cranberry Foods poultry factory in Scropton, Derbyshire. Podedworna was a skilled butcher, while Ms Zablocka worked there as an unskilled agency worker.
Employment records showed that Podedworna took a fortnight off work shortly after Ms Zablocka made her final contact with her mother in Poland in August 2010. Ms Zablocka had no further contact with her family from that point onward.
Mr Aspden alleged that the cover-up of the murder involved "deliberate, calculated, gruesome and time-consuming acts" over several days. The cause of Ms Zablocka's death remains unknown because the concealment of her body had been "extremely successful".
Details of the burial site and relationship tensions
The prosecutor described the grave as being "consistent with having been dug using a spade, a trenching shovel or a similar type of tool". A section of concrete hardstanding was later laid over the top, covering what he termed Ms Zablocka's "filthy, makeshift grave".
DNA analysis indicated that Ms Zablocka may have been the owner of a jacket found inside a Lidl carrier bag that was also buried in the grave.
Jurors were told that tensions existed in the relationship, with Podedworna's sexual attractiveness to other men allegedly causing "suspicion, jealousy, and conflict" with Ms Zablocka. In a separate disclosure, Ms Zablocka's daughter, who was living in Poland when her mother disappeared, informed police that she believed her mother wanted gender reassignment surgery but could not afford it.
Anna Podedworna, of Boyer Street, Derby, denies charges of murder, preventing a lawful burial, and perverting the course of justice between August 2010 and June 2025. The trial continues.
