A man who stabbed his girlfriend to death said that he snapped when she would not let him make a cup of tea after he suffered long-term abuse, a court heard.

Michael Foran, 33, strangled and then repeatedly stabbed June Jones, also 33, in the neck and heart in December last year.

He then hid her body in an empty bath for three weeks, telling her family that she was with friends when they tried to contact her.

Eventually police were alerted and they broke into their home in West Bromwich on the morning of New Year’s Eve last year while Foran hid and watched.

Minutes later he called his mother Christina in Ireland, telling her: ‘I’m going to be up for murder. She drove me mad. Nearly ten years now. Done. She’s done my head in. I’m f**ked.’

Foran asked his mother to cover for him but she refused and told him that he should hand himself in, but instead he went on the run.

He was arrested five days later while begging outside a Poundland in Liverpool and is now on trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court where he has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.

Anthony Berry QC, defending, read transcripts in which Foran spoke to his mother, Christina, while in custody following his arrest.

In one phone call, he told her: ‘I put up for nearly ten years with her. Through hell I went with that family. Through hell they put me through.

‘I couldn’t go outside the door without having an argument. When I did snap, I did snap. That’s what you get for it. She pushed me for years.

‘I am sorry for what I have done. I did not mean to do what I have done. They controlled me for 11 years. They broke me. I couldn’t even make a cup of tea in the house. They broke me.

‘I had had enough. I loved her but they broke me. Enough was enough.’

Describing the injuries, prosecutor Mark Heywood said: ‘When police entered the flat they found June Jones lying in the bath. There was blood spattered around her.

‘She was wearing a dressing gown. She had been partly covered with throws. It was clear she had laid there for some time.

‘Her feet were towards the [tap] end and head was at the other end. Close to her head was a knife. June Jones was in the bath when she was assaulted.

‘She was moving or her attacker was moving during the attack. Her blood was deposited in the living room. Her body was removed to the hospital for a post mortem examination.

‘There was evidence of bruising and pressure to her neck which indicated she had been asphyxiated while she was alive.

‘There was bruising around the left hand side of the head, over the left temple, the left eye and cheek and left side of the chin.

‘There were 12 stab wounds in the neck, a cluster of three stab wounds beneath the right hand side of the jaw. There was a cluster above the left breast.’

The trial continues.

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