A court technical expert told a jury this morning that a woman who was found dead in a lift shaft in November 2009 had sent two mobile phone messages to her lover, telling him that her husband was assaulting her.

The expert, Martin Bajada, was testifying in the trial of Sergei Nykytiuk, who is accused of the murder of his wife Liudmyla.

The two are alleged to have had a raging row after a party and the woman, 35, was then found dead in the lift shaft of their apartment building in St Paul's Bay.

Mr Bajada said the messages to the lover, identified at Vitali, appeared to have been made after the party.

He said he had not had access to Vitali's mobile phone. A number of calls were made to the victim at the time she was in the lift shaft, but there was no reception and the calls were therefore transferred to voice-mail.

Dental forensics expert Hector Galea said his examination on the day following the alleged murder showed that the victim had caused 18 bite marks on the accused, including his neck, chest and shoulder. Some of the bites, he said, could be classified as love bites.

The victim too had several bite marks, as well as bruises caused days before she died.

Court appointed pathologists Professor Marie Therese Camilleri and Ali Safraz, who carried out the autopsy, said that the victim had 94 separate bruises and superficial wounds all over the body, especially on the right side.

She also had a broken right arm and a black eye.

The major injuries were to her pelvis, which was fractured, tears on the liver and spleen and a tear of the main artery in front of  the pelvis.

The explained that the victim took hours to die. It was a slow process. The injuries were treatable and the fact that it was slow process made it more treatable.

The trial continues.