Woman said violent partner ‘will end up killing me’ weeks before her murder

Sam Varley’s body was discovered on February 12 last year (Picture: Yorkshire Live/MEN)

A woman told police her violent partner ‘is going to end up killing me’ weeks before she was found dead with a catalogue of appalling injuries, a court has heard.

Samantha Varley, 44, visited a domestic abuse service in Leeds a week before her body was found in the flat she shared with Warren Spence, 54, in Leeds last February, jurors were told.

Stephen Hill KC, prosecuting, told the city’s crown court their relationship was ‘characterised by the defendant’s controlling behaviour towards Miss Varley and indiscriminate use of violence towards her’.

The court heard she confided to friends and relatives that Spence would ‘beat her, put knives to her throat and put his hands around her throat so tightly she felt suffocated’, it was said.

Footage was played to the court, where Spence is on trial for murder, showing police officers visiting Sam on New Year’s Eve 2023.

Mr Hill said: ‘She is complaining about the defendant’s conduct towards her, and you may think in a moment of tragic prophecy, she says that the defendant will end up killing her.’

Asked what has happened, she says: ‘He’s just not a nice man. He’s scared me.

‘I’m f***ing terrified. He just flipped. He’s nutted me.’

Sam can be heard telling the officers it happened at home and that she is not taking the matter any further.

‘I’ve asked for help … and they’re supposed to get back and they haven’t got back,’ she goes on. ‘I’m screaming for help. He’s going to end up killing me.’

Jurors heard Sam’s body was found in the couple’s basement flat in Harehills on February 12 last year.

She had injuries to her head, chest and legs, along with bite marks on her arms and shin, said to have been inflicted in the course of a ‘heavy, brutal and sustained’ attack.

Warren Spence is on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of murder (Picture: Getty Images)

A hammer lying nearby bearing Sam’s DNA was later deemed a likely weapon by the pathologist, the court heard.

Spence was arrested in Scarborough three days later.

He had stayed with a friend, who said Spence told him Sam had thrown him out after a ‘barney’, the court heard.

Spence refused to answer any questions during his police interview and declined to offer a dental impression to be compared to the bite marks on Sam’s body, jurors were told.

The court heard his defence is likely to be that he was not present at the time Sam was murdered.

Mr Wood told jurors Spence had a ‘long history of committing acts of violence towards other women he has been in relationships with’.

‘You will hear about the number of occasions he has been convicted of using violence towards these women, threatening violence towards these women, harassing these women and engaging in controlling behaviours towards them,’ he said.

‘We will outline to you details of some of those offences. Bearing in mind the nature of the assault upon Ms Varley, you may wish to consider whether it is a mere coincidence that his violent behaviour in the past towards a partner has involved, taking hold of that partner by the neck and strangling them.

‘It has involved biting that partner and, on another occasion, pulling the hair of a partner.

‘Are they coincidences or does there comes a point as we submit, where you can safely banish all risk of coincidence?

‘The defendant is, we submit, a man who has a clear propensity to use serious violence in the context of domestic relationships.’

The trial continues.

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