A YOUNG mum found dead in her Wrexham home had told police she feared for her life in a 999 call, a murder trial has heard.

Mother-of-two Leah Ingham, 25, phoned police on six occasions to complain that partner Brian Buckley had assaulted her and was acting aggressively.

The recordings were played to a jury at Mold Crown Court yesterday.

In one, Miss Ingham revealed her relationship with 41-year-old Buckley had always been violent.

And she added: I am scared of Brian and what he might to do me.”

Buckley denies murdering Miss Ingham at the home they shared on Montgomery Road in February.

Prosecutor Simon Medland said that she had contacted police six times from October 2008 onwards.

In one call, she said Buckley had thrown her to the floor, kicked her to the side, and emptied a can of lager over her before ripping her top and her bra.

“I was scared for my life,” she told police. But she had later withdrawn her complaint.

In August last year she told police how they were both ex-heroin addicts and the violence had become worse since she started taking the drug again.

In other calls she complained he was drunk and would not leave, and that he had kicked her on the back of the head and pulled her hair.

The prosecution claims Buckley murdered Miss Ingham as their two children slept upstairs because she wanted to leave him and he believed she was taking heroin.

Earlier, the jury heard how he had been arrested at the house on the night in question and told police he had taken an overdose of methadone, and was subsequently taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

However, it was alleged that he became aggressive and had to be handcuffed to the bed.

Police took notes of some of the comments he made, the jury was told, which included: “I am so sorry, I just could not take her taking the drugs any more.”

He asked an officer: “Is she dead? What the f*** have I done?” Later on he added: "What have I done to my children?”

He asked to go back to the police station and said: “I need to go before I do something I regret. Sometimes you come across people who have nothing to lose.”

Buckley also said “I should be out by the time I am 60, if I live that long.”

Forensic scientist Brian Hignett said that Buckley’s shoes and jeans had Leah’s blood on them, and marks on her right cheek matched a ridged strip on the toe area of his shoes.

Earlier, cross-examined by defending barrister Patrick Harrington, Home Office pathologist Brian Rodgers said Miss Ingham’s face had been found to be battered and swollen.

She had suffered both internal and external injuries, he said.

Forensic scientist Brian Johnson, a toxicology specialist, told the jury that back calculations showed that, at the time of the killing, Buckley had an average of 140 miligrammes of alcohol in his blood, compared to the legal limit of 80 for a driver.

Also present were amphetamine and methadone.

Miss Ingham had no alcohol in her blood but present were amphetamine and methadone. There were no traces of heroin.

The prosecution is due to complete its case this morning.