Beata Walczak, 58, and Zbigniew Chlebek, 67, are on trial at Bradford Crown Court. Both deny murder and an alternative count of manslaughter over the death of Jaroslav Daniszewski, 43, also known as Yanic or Jarek.
Police interview transcripts read to the jury say Walczak, of Barkerend Road in Bradford, repeatedly denied causing his death or knowing who did. She told officers she had been reported as an alcoholic and that drinking sometimes left gaps in her memory.
Daniszewski was found on 22 April last year in a blood-spattered flat in Shipley. A post-mortem found he had been hit on the head and face with an iron, causing profound injury and bleeding to the brain.
The couple, together for 11 months, arrived on 20 April, Easter Sunday, at Chlebek’s flat on Stead Street. With them were Chlebek, of Stead Street, Shipley, and Bolestaw Roj, described as part of the Polish community. The four drank vodka and strong cider, listened to music and watched television.
Walczak said she and Daniszewski later went out for more alcohol and that she went to bed because she was heavily drunk. On Easter Monday morning, 21 April, she said she found him on his back in a doorway between the living room and the bedroom, mouth open, not breathing, with blood around his head. She said his cheeks were cold.
She told police she tried CPR. She said she had spent three years at a medical secondary school without graduating. She said her hand came away covered in blood when she lifted his head, and that his head lay in a pool of blood even though she saw none on top.
Asked whether she thought someone had killed him, she said yes, because that much blood would not fit a death from his existing conditions. She said he had liver problems and was an alcoholic, and that she was sure he could not have died on his own.
She said she could not explain why she did not call police at once and that she ran away. She said she did not think Chlebek or Roj were responsible and did not see them there, and that she expected Chlebek would eventually call because it was his flat.
The jury heard she left the body, took a bus to her accommodation near Bradford city centre, put a beige hoodie and dark trousers in a laundry bag and went to sleep. She said the clothes were filthy and her body sticky with blood from checking whether he was breathing.
On 22 April she told staff at the accommodation that Daniszewski had died in her arms. She was arrested the same day.
The court had already heard that Roj, who has since died, tried several times that evening to call an ambulance and failed because of language barriers.
Asked why she waited a full day to report the death, Walczak said she could not answer. She said that if he had started to breathe or move she would have continued and called an ambulance and the police. She said she fled because she was frightened and stressed.