SWANSEA man Paul Grabham asked a woman friend for sex two days before he allegedly murdered his wife, it was revealed yesterday.

He suggested having a "one-night stand" with the Port Talbot woman or with one of her friends, jurors heard.

Later, when he was in prison awaiting trial, Grabham wrote to the same woman to complain that he was missing sex and his car.

Details of contact Grabham had with mother-of-one Samantha Jenkins before and after Kirsty Grabham's death emerged on day nine of his Swansea Crown Court trial.

The 25-year-old defendant denies murdering his 24-year-old wife in the early hours of March 28 last year after they got home separately from a night out at Play nightclub in the city centre.

He allegedly killed Mrs Grabham at their top-floor flat in Rosehill Terrace, Mount Pleasant, then dumped her body in a suitcase on an embankment near the M4, where it was found on April 6.

The couple both worked in the sex industry as prostitutes and had got married in 2008 a few weeks after meeting at a Bridgend brothel.

Prosecution witness Miss Jenkins, of Cwmavon, told the court she first met Grabham five years ago when she was 16.

"We became friends but were never boyfriend and girlfriend," she said.

For two years they lost touch with each other, but on March 22 last year Grabham turned up out of the blue at her mother's house in Brynglas Avenue, Cwmavon.

"He said he just wanted to catch up," said the witness.

Grabham told Miss Jenkins that his wife was called Kirsty but they had argued and "weren't getting along". "He said she had smashed his car up and had tried to get him with a knife," said Miss Jenkins.

"He showed me a nick on his finger from when he got the knife off her."

Miss Jenkins said she next saw Grabham when he arrived at her home in Tymaen Crescent on March 26.

During this visit he said that he and his wife were "sorting things out". "But I thought this was strange because he then asked me to set him up with one of my friends for a one-night stand," said Miss Jenkins.

"He also asked me for a one-night stand."

Miss Jenkins, who rejected both requests, said it was possible that Grabham was joking when he asked her to have sex with him.

"We used to joke a lot," she said. The court heard that on the afternoon of March 28 — just hours after the alleged murder — Grabham asked if he could meet up with her and her friends when they went out that evening.

But in the event nothing came of this. Their next contact was the next day — when Grabham arrived at her house, found her watching Heartbeat and accordingly described her as "sad".

"He said that he and Kirsty had gone out on Friday," said Miss Jenkins.

"He said he heard her come in, but he did not get up at that point — and when he woke up in the morning she was gone.

"He thought she had left him, but he was worried because she had not phoned her mother either."

Miss Jenkins told the court that a few weeks after Grabham was charged with murder he sent her two letters from Swansea Prison.

One of these, read out by Greg Taylor QC, prosecuting, contained the following words: "Never thought I'd be in this place . . . I can't say anything about what's going on because the letters are all checked, but I'll tell you when I see you — which shouldn't be too long, I hope."

In the letter Grabham went on to say of prison: "It's not as bad as I thought. Just missing my car and sex — you know what I'm like."

Another Port Talbot witness called by the prosecution yesterday was Maria Price, of King Street.

She and the defendant had once lived near each other in North Cornelly, the court heard, but she had not seen him for three years before he suddenly turned up at her home on March 30.

"He seemed his normal, happy, confident self," she told Mr Taylor. Grabham told her that his wife had gone missing, but stressed that they had not had an argument.

"He seemed fine when he was telling me all this," said Miss Price. "He did not look upset or anything like that."

The case continues.

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