A young woman screamed for help from the balcony of her 14th floor flat moments before she was allegedly strangled to death by her boyfriend, a murder trial has heard.
Liam Cain, 19, went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court today accused of murdering his girlfriend Courtney Boorne, which he denies.
Ms Boorne, 20, was found unresponsive at the couple’s flat on Quarry Green Heights in Kirkby, Merseyside, on December 23 last year.
A jury of four men and eight women heard how the pair had been in a relationship for around three years by Christmas 2022.
Gordon Cole KC, prosecuting, described how Ms Boorne, a care worker, was seen leaving for work at 6:30am on the day of her death with Mr Cain subsequently heading out at roughly 10:30am.
Courtney Boorne, 20, was found unresponsive in Kirkby, Merseyside, on December 23 last year
They were then captured on CCTV taking a bus home from Robson Street, Anfield, re-entering their address at 2:45pm.
Shortly after 3.30pm, Mr Boorne phoned her mum, Cheryl, and told her ‘if she didn’t hear from her within an hour to call the police, because something was going on’.
Mr Cole told the court: ‘Courtney was concerned. Concerned that the defendant was going to take her phone from her, and she was concerned about that which the defendant had done to her in strangling her and getting hold of her.’
Just over an hour later, a woman named Maureen Dixon – who lived in an adjacent block of flats – dialled 999 to report that she could see a woman in an apartment opposite ‘screaming and climbing onto the window ledge’.
Mr Cole added: ‘Maureen Dixon said that the female appeared to be shouting at someone inside the flat. Courtney Boorne was heard to shout “please”. She was crying and she was shouting, “he has all the doors locked and he won’t let me out”.’
Another witness, Ria Green, also called the police to ‘report a female shouting out of the window, screaming, shouting “call the police, he’s choking me”.’
Mr Cole continued: ‘She was described by Ria Green as screaming, and the window was then closed. What they couldn’t see, of course, was what was going on inside the flat.
‘The only two people inside the flat were Courtney Boorne and this defendant.’
Officers then attended the 14th-storey property ‘very quickly’ and had to force entry upon their arrival shortly before 5pm. They discovered Ms Boorne unconscious on a bed in the bedroom with ‘visible marks to her neck’.
Liam Cain, 19, went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court today accused of murdering his girlfriend at their flat (pictured)
She was rushed to Aintree University Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 7:02pm. A post-mortem investigation later found that she had suffered a cardiac arrest because, Mr Cole said, ‘of the asphyxia, the strangulation, the smothering of her by this defendant’.
Mr Cain was arrested after being found ‘crouched down, leaning on an armchair in the living room’ with ‘scratch marks’ on his head and face. The court heard Mr Cain had sent a text to his dad saying: ‘I love you the world, everyone.’
Mr Cole concluded the prosecution’s opening by saying: ‘The defendant seems to be saying that what he did was something that he did in lawful and reasonable self-defence. He is saying he was defending himself from an attack by Courtney Boorne.
‘We say, when we look at the facts of the case, it may well be that Courtney was struggling – struggling to get out. She wanted out of the flat. It may be that the question of his intention becomes an issue for your consideration during the trial.
‘We say, in very simple terms, that whatever had been going on – whatever argument there may have been – it was this defendant exhibiting aggression and violence, so much so that Courtney Boorne shouted for help from the 14th floor.’
Mr Cain, who is represented by Andrew Radcliffe KC and wore a shirt and tie in the dock, denies murder.
The trial, before Judge Brian Cummings KC, continues.
