- 'His last chance of staying in the UK was for him to marry an EU citizen'
- Victim had been attacked in the bedroom and strangled before her head was shoved under the bath water
- Tried to strangle her in 2008, holding her neck with both hands and issuing the chilling warning: 'Nobody can help you now'
Iranian-born Hossein Abdollahzadeh, 32, left Agnieszka Dziegielewska's naked body in a bath full of water at her flat in Swinton, near Rotherham, just weeks after she kicked him out.
He later hanged himself in his prison cell while on remand charged with Dziegielewska's murder, the inquest in Rotherham heard.
Agnieszka moved to the UK from Bialystok, Poland, in 2004 - the year the country became a full member of the EU - and met Abdollahzadeh four years later at his takeaway pizza shop in Swinton.
Marrying Agnieszka, an EU citizen, would have enabled the Iranian to continue living in the UK.
The inquest heard Agnieszka Dziegielewska had been throttled with a ligature before
having her head pushed under bath water. A chair had also been placed over her body
having her head pushed under bath water. A chair had also been placed over her body
It emerged at the hearing that Abdollahzadeh treated his partner of two years 'like a servant', regularly slapping and beating her which left her covered in bruises. He also refused to believe their relationship was over when she left him to escape the violence.
Ms Dziegielewska's mother said Abdollahzadeh had previously tried to strangle her daughter in 2008, holding her neck with both hands and issuing the chilling warning: 'Nobody can help you now.'
She added: 'He started treating her like a servant and humiliating her in public.
On one occasion he slapped her so hard her tooth got loose. Each time he would explain he didn't know why it had happened, and it wouldn't happen again.'
The inquest was told that when he killed her in January last year she had been throttled with a ligature before having her head pushed under the bath water. A chair had also been placed over her body.
Pathologist Dr Peter Vanezis, who examined the body, said she could have been attacked for up to 10 minutes, and that Agnieszka had fought back by 'struggling significantly' before her death.
Detective Superintendent Colin Fisher told the inquest: 'He had failed in his application for political asylum having claimed he had been persecuted as a journalist.
'He could not work or claim benefits yet still set up his own business and was drawing an income.
'His appeals were coming to an end and his last chance of staying in the UK was for him to marry an EU citizen.'
When asked by coroner Nicola Mundy if anyone else was involved in Miss Dziegielewska's death, he replied: 'No ma'am. There is no evidence of any other person being involved.'
Witnesses told the inquest that Abdollahzadeh - who ran an illegal pizza takeaway service - only went out with Miss Dziegielewska because he wanted to marry her so he could stay in the UK.
Det Supt Fisher told the court that her new boyfriend Daniel Sandhall, a shift manager at her bakery, had been completely exonerated of murder and Abdollahzadeh was the only suspect.
Det Supt Fisher said a fingerprint at the flat, CCTV footage and mobile phone records placed Abdollahzadeh at the crime scene.
Further evidence of his record of domestic violence against the victim and property he stole from the flat linked him to the murder.
The Iranian had claimed he spent that night working and then went to a friend's house, and he maintained that alibi in prison.
A note was found by his body in prison. Det Supt Fisher said: 'He didn't admit to the death of Agnieszka but does not seek to blame anybody else.
'He doesn't offer an alternative alibi and the tone of this letter was more about his self-interest.'
Miss Dziegielewska's parents Piotr and Jolanta Mlodzian flew from Poland for the inquest.
Mrs Mlodzian said in a statement read at the inquest that her hard-working daughter had worked at the Maple Leaf Bakery in Swinton since arriving in the UK four years previously.
Miss Dziegielewska and Abdollahzadeh were living together in her Swinton flat by 2008.
But their initial happiness turned sour as her Iranian partner battered and verbally abused the Polish woman from September 2008 onwards.
She was too scared to call in the police. Her mother, who spoke to her daughter every day by phone said: 'She was afraid of the consequences and an escalation of the violence on his side.'
When she finally plucked up the courage to ask her partner to leave he wrote 'I love you' in the snow outside and bought her flowers and a cake with candles for her 30th birthday.
By this time Miss Dziegielewska had begun a relationship with Mr Sandhall. Her parents came over from Poland to help their daughter sort things out with Abdollahzadeh.
Mrs Mlodzian said of him: 'He only cared about himself and nobody else. He considered himself the centre of the world without giving anything back.'
She told the inquest: 'I thought he only wanted to be here to obtain clearance to stay in the UK.'
The Iranian finally moved out of the flat on January 15 last year and Miss Dziegielewska changed the locks.
On the evening before the Polish woman's death, her mother spoke to her by telephone.
She said: 'She was cheerful and happy that things had started to go well with David. She felt safe and respected with him.'
Saman Aghababaei, a friend of Abdollahzadeh, said in a statement: 'I never once saw him take her out or buy a present for her.
'I told him he was messing her about. I think he was using her to obtain a visa.'
He said she told him she had wasted two years with Abdollahzadeh and wanted the relationship to end.
'She had found someone else she liked and wanted to marry.'
Miss Dziegielewska's Polish friend Agnieszka Blazejewicz told the hearing: 'He began shouting at her and wouldn't let her go anywhere alone. He wanted to know everything she did.
'He was very controlling. She gave him chance to change but nothing changed so she asked him to leave.'
Ms Blazejewicz later received a threatening telephone call from Abdollahzadeh.
She said: 'He told me if she leaves he will kill her and then me because I don't help him.'
She relayed this to Miss Dziegielewska, who said he had made such threats before.
'He said he would kill her as she could never be with anyone else.'
Mr Sandhall called the police when he got no response to his calls. He last saw Miss Dziegielewska on January 27 last year as they left work.
He said: 'We spoke about each other's feelings and moving in together. We had a kiss and a cuddle and she just drove off.'
Miss Dziegielewska's body was found in her flat the next day. The coroner said it was clear Abdollazadeh had been violent towards his ex-partner and was reluctant to end the relationship.
She had also invited the killer into her home 'whether after some persuasion or a degree of reluctance on her part' as nothing had been disturbed apart from in the bedroom.
Ms Mundy said 'she died at the hand of another' and gave a verdict of unlawful killing.
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