Yeates suffered 43 injuries in fight for life, court hears
Yeates, aged 25, suffered a slow and painful death as she was strangled by “cold and calculated” killer Vincent Tabak.
Tabak kept his crime secret for more than six weeks before confessing to a prison chaplain, prosecutors claim.
Tabak, aged 33, was said to have used his height and build to overpower Yeates’s 5ft 4in frame at her flat in Clifton, Bristol.
She fought for her life for some time as Tabak pinned her to the floor by her wrists, Nigel Lickley told Bristol Crown Court.
“There was a violent struggle by Ms Yeates to survive,” he said.
“He might have let go but he did not. He knew that Ms Yeates was in pain and struggling to breathe.”
Of the catalogue of injuries, 12 were to her head and neck and two to her trunk. There were a total of 21 wounds on her arms and four on her legs.
“We suggest he did not panic or lose control. He was controlled and calculated,” Lickley said.
“The overall pattern of injuries indicate an episode of manual compression of the neck that is known as strangulation.
“The injuries mean that Ms Yeates was alive when the injuries to her neck took place and death was not instantaneous.
“In other words it took some time and sufficient force was used to kill her.”
Dutch engineer Tabak — who has admitted manslaughter but denies murder — left her corpse on a snowy verge with her jeans still fastened and her pink top partially pulled up over her head.
The court heard that blood stains on a wall where Yeates’s body was dumped suggested Tabak had tried to lift her over the wall into a neighbouring quarry.
The court had already heard how within minutes of “squeezing the life out” of Yeates, Tabak sent his girlfriend a text: “Miss you loads. It’s boring here without you Vxx.”
The court heard he went shopping in Asda with her body in his car boot less than two hours after the killing on December 17.
The trial continues today.
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