A friend of Ramute Butkiene (pictured) told the Southwark Crown Court murder trial that she had seen her hurt twice before she died
A woman whose torso was found in a suitcase was beaten so badly she looked like a "rotten apple" before she died, a court has heard.
Ramute Butkiene's partner, Vytautas Jokubauskas, is accused of strangling her and hacking up her body.
Friend Juolanda Tarailiene told Southwark Crown Court she had twice seen Ms Butkiene injured shortly before her death.
Mr Jokubauskas, 57, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.
The factory worker, of Mayor's Walk, Peterborough, also pleaded guilty to preventing the burial of a corpse at an earlier hearing.
He hid the 42-year-old's torso in a locked suitcase after she was killed earlier this year, the trial heard.
Vytautas Jokubauskas is accused of strangling his girlfriend, chopping up her body and hiding her remains in a suitcase
Ms Tarailiene told the court how she had twice seen her friend, a mother-of-one, injured.
She said Ms Butkiene had once asked her to go to hospital to have a cut on her hand stitched up after she said she had been hit with a golf club.
The court also heard from the victim's former boyfriend Adam Jedrzeyewski, who said she seemed scared the last time he spoke to her on the phone.
"Just as a heart stops beating, it just ended," he said of the two-minute call.
Mr Jedrzeyewski told the court he had lived with Ms Butkiene for four years before she moved out and that her heavy drinking had bothered him as it had disrupted his sleep.
The trial continues.
