A mother was strangled by her "bullying and jealous" partner who used a cord wrapped twice around her neck, a murder jury was told today.

Jorge Garay is alleged to have carried out the attack while he and Karla Godoy were on holiday in Peru last September.

The 46-year-old Dartford resident has denied murder but admits he caused her death during a furious row and then buried in a makeshift grave.

The trial is believed to be the first brought under a 2021 Act which allows a defendant to be tried in the UK, even though the killing happened 6,000 miles away.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts told Maidstone Crown Court: "The cause of death was mechanical asphyxia.

"The position of the chord suggests he applied force to Karla's body from behind. A chord had been wrapped twice around her neck."

A British pathologist later told police: "It is generally accepted that continuous pressure around the neck for between 15 to 30 seconds is required before a person will lose consciousness.

“This pressure then has to be continued for at least a minute to cause death."

Mr Bennetts told the jury: "The evidence suggests Garay was a bullying, controlling and jealous man and one of the factors that made him jealous was when Karla was going to see her daughter from a previous relationship."

The couple had been holidaying in the South American country when she went missing.

Honduras-born Karla, 37, was due to fly to Spain but failed to make her flight and was reported missing by her family.

Garay, of Hythe Street, Dartford, later called a Peruvian policeman telling him he had hit his partner, it was claimed.

"He said he had buried her body in Carabayllo [near the capial city Lima], telling the officer: "We had an argument. She wanted to attack me with a knife. I defended myself. I punched her. One punch. I buried her," said Mr Bennetts.

In a prepared statement, Garay claimed he and Karla had spent a week in Lima, adding: "We had recently been arguing about her ex-partner and their 10 year old daughter. The ex-partner had custody of Karla's daughter.

"This was causing her a lot of stress. She was suffering mentally because of this. I think she was depressed."

On the evening of her death, the accused claimed Karla had been "mad and angry". Garay, who worked with his partner at a Dartford-based cleaning company, told how they had visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site Machu Piccu and had been photographed together.

Days later they were sat in a kitchen when Karla said she had received messages from her former partner.

He said: "I told her to ignore the messages and calls [that he] had made to her. I told her to ignore him. Not to let him spoil our holiday.

"I told her that she was sh*t and at that point she slapped me hard in the face and was calling me the most hurtful names...that I was a sh*t and that I had no right telling her what to do...that I am no-one. I slapped her back."

He then claimed his girlfriend grabbed a wooden knife and lashed out at him. Karla's body was later found by police in a shallow grave a few miles away. The trial continues.