A pregnant woman carrying twins was found dead on a bathroom floor after allegedly being stabbed more than 60 times by her partner, a court has heard.
Amber O’Brien, 33, was discovered “cold to the touch” at her partner’s flat in Blackley, north Manchester, on April 19 this year. She was naked, covered with a blue tarpaulin and lying in “pools of water”.
Stephan Garner, 31, has admitted killing Ms O’Brien at Manchester Crown Court, but denies murder.
Prosecutors allege Garner attacked Ms O’Brien following an argument between the couple.
Her body was left inside the eighth-floor flat she shared with Garner, who was the father of her unborn twins, then nine weeks into the pregnancy.
Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, told the court: “How Amber died, only the defendant who is alive can say.”
He said: “She had been stabbed repeatedly in the neck and face. The pathologist recorded more than 60 separate stab, incised and puncture wounds — 32 of them to her face and neck.”
The prosecution alleges that Garner killed Ms O’Brien during the early hours of April 18.
Amber O’Brien, 33, was found dead at a block of flats in Blackley, Greater Manchester, shortly before 6pm on April 19 after police received reports of a disturbance
Mr Power alleged that Garner then spent the next day and a half attempting to conceal what had happened. He said Garner stripped and washed Ms O’Brien’s body, bleached the flat, placed her bloodstained clothes in bags, destroyed her phone and disposed of his own before police intervened.
The court heard that Garner allegedly told a relative he had been “cleaning up” the bathroom after buying bleach and scouring sponges from Poundland.
Police forced entry to the flat shortly after 6pm the following day. Garner had allegedly told his cousin that he had “stabbed her in the neck twice”, jurors were told.
Garner reportedly claimed: “She had been threatening me.”
Garner, of Somerton Court in Blackley, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but is contesting the murder charge.
The couple had been together for around three months before Ms O’Brien died.
Jurors heard that Ms O’Brien told her brother the pair “argued a lot over silly things” and that she was unhappy with Garner’s “mood swings”.
Two weeks before her death, she reportedly told her sibling of Garner: “Something ain’t fitting with me.”
Police officers were pictured at a cordon outside Somerton Court tower block on Broadmoss Drive in Blackley on Sunday, April 19
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The court also heard of an ongoing dispute concerning Ms O’Brien’s flat in Middleton.
Prosecutors said Garner wanted her to give up the property and move in with him, but Ms O’Brien felt “pressured” by the situation.
But she moved into the flat in Blackley three weeks prior to her death, jurors were told.
Mr Power said the ‘friction was not all one way in the relationship’, and that Ms O’Brien could be heard threatening Garner on an audio recording.
Prosecutors argue that ‘doesn’t come anywhere close’ to justify Garner’s actions. The court heard that in the early hours of April 18, Ms O’Brien called her brother and said: ‘I can’t stand him, I’m not staying here.’
She left the flat but later returned with Garner, it was said. Garner was arrested at about 7pm on April 19. When officers attended the flat they noticed an ‘overpowering smell of bleach’, the jury was told.
He was interviewed twice by police and made no comment on both occasions, prosecutors said.
At trial, Garner is expected to say that he did not intend to cause Ms O’Brien serious bodily harm and that he was experiencing a loss of control at the time.
He is expected to allege that he tried to leave the flat in the early hours of April 18, but that Ms O’Brien punched him and was holding a knife, and told him the ‘babies had been aborted’.
The trial, which is expected to last seven days, continues.
Ms O’Brien’s family paid tribute to her as a ‘beautiful soul’ when she died, adding that she was a ‘devoted daughter and sister’.
In a statement issued through Greater Manchester Police on Saturday, Ms O’Brien’s family said: ‘We are deeply saddened by the loss of Amber.
‘Her passing has left us devastated, and she will be fondly remembered by all who had the privilege of knowing her.
‘Amber was known for her warm smile and her natural ability to lift others up.
‘She had a truly kind heart and made everyone around her feel valued and appreciated.
‘She was a devoted daughter and sister and a beautiful soul whose bright spirit brought joy, laughter, and comfort wherever she went.
‘Our hearts are broken. Amber’s memory will live on with us forever.’
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