THE mother of Swansea prostitute Kirsty Grabham broke down in court as she described their last meeting — on Mother's Day.

Catherine Broomfield sobbed as she told jurors how her daughter gave her chocolates shortly before she was allegedly murdered by her husband, Paul Grabham.

Mrs Broomfield also described an incident in which Grabham allegedly grabbed his wife by the throat and "tried to strangle her". Grabham, aged 25, denies killing 24-year-old Mrs Grabham at their flat in Rosehill Terrace, Mount Pleasant, in the early hours of March 28 last year.

According to the prosecution, he then put her body in a suitcase and dumped it on a motorway embankment near Cefn Cribwr between Swansea and Bridgend, where it was found on April 6.

The couple worked in the sex industry as prostitutes and had got married in 2008, three months after meeting at a brothel. At Swansea Crown Court, Mrs Broomfield, of North Cornelly, was visibly shaking as she took the oath at the start of her evidence on day five of the case.

Questioned by Greg Taylor QC, prosecuting, she said: "Kirsty had ambitions to be a model. She wanted to be like Jordan and she had sent photos off to magazines to try to get them published."

Mrs Broomfield agreed that she had urged her daughter not to marry Grabham. "He would not leave her alone. He was kissing and cuddling her all the time in my company," she said.

"Kirsty visited me in North Cornelly once or twice a month, and unfortunately Paul would be with her when she visited."

Mrs Broomfield believed that, following their marriage, the couple were "not getting on very well at all".

She told the court that, during a visit to Coventry for a family do four months after the wedding, her daughter claimed to have been violently attacked by the defendant.

"She said he grabbed her by the throat and tried to strangle her," said Mrs Broomfield. "She said she was so scared she had wet herself." The court heard that, after hearing this, Mrs Broomfield urged her daughter to leave Grabham, but her daughter replied: "I'm married — I have to try to make it work."

The witness also claimed that, after Grabham overheard the women's conversation, he called his wife a slag and children nearby were terrified.

"He wasn't happy that Kirsty had told me what had happened," she said.

Mrs Broomfield said her daughter was very upset when she discovered that Grabham had been using internet "dogging sites".

Asked about March 22 — Mother's Day — Mrs Broomfield broke down as she told the court: "She came to my house to give me chocolates and a card. That was the last time I saw her — apart from in the mortuary." The last conversation between them was via Facebook on March 27, the court heard, when Mrs Broomfield said she was thinking of going to bingo.

Mrs Grabham replied that she had recently won some money at bingo, adding: "Do you want some of my luck, mum?" The jury heard that on March 30 Grabham rang his mother-in-law to ask if she had seen her daughter.

Grabham claimed that they had come home separately from a night out and when he got up on March 28 she was gone.

He said certain things were missing — including £160 and some hair straighteners — and she must have taken these with her. But she had not taken her debit card or her hairbrush. Mrs Broomfield said Grabham's account "did not add up".

The witness said that on April 1, when her daughter was still missing, Grabham said he had also noticed that her toothbrush was missing. He said he had not spotted this on March 28 because they kept their toothbrushes in different parts of the bathroom.

"This did not ring true to me," added Mrs Broomfield. The case continues.

Read more from yesterday's evidence in Wednesday's South Wales Evening Post.