{"id":418151,"date":"2026-02-10T14:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418151\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:40:10","slug":"turkey-butcher-guilty-of-killing-and-cutting-up-girlfriend-15-years-ago-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418151\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey butcher guilty of killing and cutting up girlfriend 15 years ago | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A turkey butcher who killed her girlfriend and cut her in half before burying her in a garden has been found guilty of murder.<\/p>\n<p>Anna Podedworna, from Poland, killed Izabela Zablocka with a horse figurine before trussing her up &#8220;like a chicken&#8221; with electrical tape and burying her remains wrapped in bin bags in a &#8220;filthy, makeshift grave&#8221; in the garden of a terraced house in Normanton, Derby.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Zablocka, 30, lost contact with her mother and nine-year-old daughter in Poland in August 2010 and was reported missing, Derby Crown Court heard.<\/p>\n<p>About 15 years later, Podedworna, 40, &#8220;cracked&#8221; due to &#8220;mounting pressure&#8221; and emailed police last year after a Polish television journalist flew to the UK to interview her, prosecutor Gordon Aspden told the jury.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skynews-izabela-helena-zablocka_6933491.jpg\"   alt=\"Izabela Zablocka. Pic: PA\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Izabela Zablocka. Pic: PA<\/p>\n<p>In June, officers located Ms Zablocka&#8217;s remains under concrete hardstanding in the garden of the house she shared with Podedworna after they moved to the UK from Poland together.<\/p>\n<p>During her trial, jurors heard how &#8220;considerable force&#8221; would have been needed to cut Ms Zablocka&#8217;s body in half, and that her legs had been bound together before she was buried.<\/p>\n<p>Podedworna was a skilled butcher at a poultry factory in Scropton, Derbyshire, at the time, and her work &#8220;had involved skinning, deboning, and portioning out turkey carcasses using a large knife&#8221;, Mr Aspden told the court.<\/p>\n<p>The butcher took two weeks off work after Ms Zablocka&#8217;s final contact with her mother, according to the factory&#8217;s employment records.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skynews-anna-podedworna-izabela-zablocka_7160941.jpg\"   alt=\"Anna Podedworna being arrested. Pic: Derbyshire Police\/PA\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Anna Podedworna being arrested. Pic: Derbyshire Police\/PA<\/p>\n<p>Podedworna, giving evidence with the help of a Polish interpreter, claimed Ms Zablocka was &#8220;angry&#8221; on the day of her death, before grabbing and strangling her.<\/p>\n<p>She said she was acting in self-defence when she hit Ms Zablocka with the horse figurine, as she believed her partner was going to kill her.<\/p>\n<p>But instead of calling an ambulance when she could not find her girlfriend&#8217;s pulse, Podedworna decided to cut her in half with a knife and bury her in the garden. She later covered the burial site with a concrete hardstanding.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skynews-anna-podedworna-izabela-zablocka_7160948.jpg\"   alt=\"A police interview with Anna Podedworna.\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        A police interview with Anna Podedworna.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was just terrified, I felt fear. I thought I will bury her. I took the decision I would bury her in the garden,&#8221; Podedworna told jurors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wanted to pick her up whole. I just did not have the strength to pick her up. I had an idea to cut her down. It seemed the only way\u2026 to cut her into two.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Detective Inspector Kane Martin said Podedworna &#8220;acted like a monster&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After killing Izabela she cut her into two, treating her no differently to another piece of meat at work,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skynews-izabela-helena-zablocka_6933490.jpg\"   alt=\"Izabela Helena Zablocka. Pic: PA\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Izabela Helena Zablocka. Pic: PA<\/p>\n<p>Derbyshire Police Detective Constable Emma Birch added that Ms Zablocka&#8217;s daughter Katysenia pushed for answers about her mother&#8217;s disappearance, contacting missing persons&#8217; charities in Poland and reporters after &#8220;hoping that the phone would ring and her mum would finally come back into her life&#8221; every year on her birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Samantha Shallow of the Crown Prosecution Service said Ms Zablocka came to Derby &#8220;in search of a new life with her partner, but instead met her death&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/hundreds-of-homes-flooded-with-record-levels-of-rain-set-to-continue-13505552\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hundreds of homes flooded with record rain<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/man-sought-after-rape-on-university-campus-13505628\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Man sought after rape on university campus<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She added about Podedworna&#8217;s &#8220;callous&#8221; actions: &#8220;Anna Podedworna not only brutally murdered her partner, but she subjected Izabela&#8217;s loved ones to 15 years of uncertainty and anguish, not knowing if she was alive or dead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Podedworna was convicted of murder, preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice. She will be sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A turkey butcher who killed her girlfriend and cut her in half before burying her in a garden&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-418151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}