Man confessed to killing girlfriend after plughole hair row, court told

Daniel Jones told police it was a petty quarrel over domestic chores.

The 27-year-old former University of Wolverhampton student denies murder. Mr Gordon Aspden, prosecuting, told the jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court that Jones and Aston University student Da In Lee had met at a church in Birmingham in 2011 and started a relationship.

Miss Lee, who had come to Birmingham from South Korea to study would visit Jones at his home in Grace Road, Tipton, and often spent the night.

Mr Aspden said that over time, the relationship deteriorated, and there were frequent arguments and rows.

Miss Lee, 22, ended the relationship on March 24, 2012 but a fortnight later she returned to the flat.

Mr Aspden said: "There appeared to be some attempt at reconciliation between them but swiftly and violently, it all went wrong, and by Easter Sunday evening, Da In Lee was dead."

Police found her body on the bed in the flat the following evening. The court heard that Miss Lee died on April 8, 2012, and that the following day, Jones visited his former girlfriend Stacey Miller who is also the mother of his daughter in Bristol.

He told Miss Miller: "I've killed my girlfriend." Jones was arrested on a train to Birmingham after the meeting with Miss Miller. Mr Aspden said Jones told police that the background was a petty quarrel over household chores and hair being found in the plughole.

Jones claimed that the argument escalated, he pushed her to the floor, and tried to stop her screaming. He had put his left hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, and said he then applied pressure on her throat with his right hand.

Mr Aspden said Jones had not answered the interview questions truthfully and that the pathologist found Miss Lee died as a result of pressure being applied to the neck, but said this was not done with the hands.

The trial continues.