A manslaughter trial jury has heard that Woonona woman Valmai Jane Birch was seen bruised "black and blue" the year before her death.
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Ms Birch's boyfriend David Bagster is standing trial in the Wollongong District Court having pleaded not guilty to causing the death of the 34-year-old, who was found dead in her Woonona unit in March 2011.
On Tuesday the court heard Senior Constable Claudia Pavric encountered Ms Birch at the Johanson Crescent, Mangerton home of a man named Khaled Khaled on August 16, 2010, when she was called to assist in an eviction.
The officer said she saw Ms Birch walk out with another man, and she saw her right eye and cheek were very swollen and bruised red and purple, her left eye was swollen, she had a small cut to her left eyebrow, and red marks on her neck.
Senior Constable Pavric took a statement from Ms Birch, in which she said Bagster had hit her to the face about three times with a closed fist and wrapped a pair of tracksuit pants around her neck earlier that morning after an argument about money.
During cross-examination from defence counsel Scott Fraser, Senior Constable Pavric told the jury that these allegations never came before the courts.
Ms Birch's friend Tassier Khaled told the court he visited his brother Khaled Khaled's home in Mangerton on one occasion and saw Ms Birch there "black and blue, and she had a mark around her neck". He said Ms Birch told him "that her boyfriend done it".
Mr Khaled said Ms Birch visited his home with his brother some time later and "she'd been bashed again".
The jury heard Ms Birch had asked him to withdraw $700 from her account because she was scared that Bagster "might get money off her" if he saw her.
In cross-examination Mr Khaled denied taking Ms Birch's bank key card as collateral for a drug debt she owed.
The jury heard from Khaled Khaled that there was an occasion in 2010 when Ms Birch came to his home and she'd been "assaulted badly".
"She had a knot tied around her throat and she was hardly breathing," Mr Khaled said.
He said this was not the same date that he was evicted from the home, but police had come.
He refuted Mr Fraser's suggestion he had assaulted Ms Birch or Bagster.
Mr Khaled also denied wanting to keep the $700 his brother had withdrawn from Ms Birch's account for himself.
Another witness, Wayne Young, gave evidence of smelling a rotten odour from Ms Birch's Woonona unit early on the morning of March 17, 2011
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