A WOMAN murdered and buried her partner in the garden after she couldn’t afford gender reassignment surgery, a court heard.
Anna Podedworna is accused of killing Izabela Zablocka, 30, at their home in Normanton, Derbyshire – where her body laid undiscovered for 15 years.
Podedworna, 40, allegedly cut Izabela‘s body in half and stored it in bin bags before burying her in a “filthy makeshift grave” in 2010.
Her partner’s dismembered body was buried in the back garden, before concrete hardstanding was laid over the top, Derby Crown Court was told.
The body lay buried in the garden until June 1, 2025, after Podedworna emailed Derbyshire Police to tell them it could be found there, it was said.
Skilled butcher Podedworna stands accused of Izabela’s murder, preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice.
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Izabela’s daughter, Katarzyna Zablocka, 25, said her mother would occasionally try to “present herself more as a male than a female”.
Katarzyna, who was living in Poland when her mum went missing, told police she believed her mother wanted gender reassignment surgery.
But Izabela could not afford to pay for the operation, the court heard.
Katarzyna said she overheard conversations between her mum and Podedworna about “changing my mother’s gender”.
She told the court how arguments between the pair were often jealousy-fuelled and she had noticed that Podedworna “preferred men”.
Jurors were told Podedworna, of Boyer Street, Derby, had a “stormy and turbulent” relationship with Ms Zablocka.
The pair started a relationship while living in the same block of flats in Trzebiatow, north-west Poland, Katarzyna said.
Izabela then began a “sexual relationship” with Podedworna and the pair moved to the UK in 2009 in search of work.
The court heard men found the defendant sexually attractive, which “caused suspicion, jealousy, and conflict” in her relationship with Izabela.
Izabela’s daughter stayed in Poland with her family and the mum often called to check on her, it was said.
The couple worked at Cranberry Foods, a poultry factory in Scropton, Derbyshire, before Ms Zablocka stopped contacting her family.
Her final phone call came on August 28, 2010, before she was allegedly murdered by Podedworna.
Prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC said: “Following this telephone call Izabela’s family neither saw nor heard from her ever again.
“To all intents and purposes she completely disappeared off the face of the earth.”
Izabela was reported missing by her family to UK police in November 2010 and then to police in Poland in January 2011.
When police approached Podedworna, she told them she had not seen her since August, jurors were told.
‘Severe force’
The defendant then “got on with her life as though nothing had happened”, including having two children.
But in May 2025, jurors heard a Polish journalist requested an interview with Podedworna, which “proved to be a tipping point”.
The defendant emailed police saying she wished to provide evidence before revealing they would find Izabela’s body in the back garden.
Officers discovered Izabela’s body in June, but the court heard all that remained “was a skeleton and a few small fragments of human tissue”.
The 30-year-old’s skeleton was discovered in two bin bags when cops dug up the garden where she used to live in Normanton.
A Home Office pathologist told the court it was not possible to determine exactly how the mum died because her remains had decayed so badly.
But Dr Stuart Hamilton did conclude it would have required “severe force” to have hacked through Izabela’s body.
The jury was also told electrical tape had been used to bind her legs together before she was buried.
Mr Aspden said: “The police inquired into the type of work the defendant had performed at the time of the murder – the result was significant.
“The police discovered that the defendant had been employed as a skilled butcher.
“Her work had involved skinning, deboning, and portioning out turkey carcasses using a large knife.”
Employment records at the factory show Podedworna took two weeks off after Izabela made her final contact with her family, the court heard.
Mr Aspden said the defendant’s cover-up of the murder involved “deliberate, calculated, gruesome and time-consuming acts”.
He added: “The appalling mistreatment and destruction of Izabela’s body really speaks for itself.”
Podedworna denies murder, preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
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