A young mum-of-five was murdered at the hands of her abusive boyfriend in an 'orgy of violence,' a court heard.
Stephen Charlton, 24, was today found guilty of killing Natalie Saunders at her Middlesbrough home.
Natalie, 33, was found on Sunday October 7 and had received over 50 separate blows to her body and 85 injuries.
The jury heard of the 85 separate sites of injury on Ms Saunders' body - with a minimum of three blows found to her face, 13 to her head and neck, 23 to her torso, and 25 to her lower limbs.
A prosecutor said the injuries were so severe that Natalie looked like she had been involved in a road traffic accident, hit by a truck.
Charlton, of Gresham, Middlesbrough, had denied murdering her at her home.
But after less than two hours of deliberations he was found guilty, and will be sentenced on Thursday when he will face life in prison.
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Prosecutor Peter Makepeace QC had told jurors that the murder was committed by someone who had “completely lost control”.
"This was not a static situation," he said. "She was struggling, she was fighting and trying to defend herself."
The court heard that during the “unrestrained violence”, Natalie, who was only nine stones, had injuries from 10 blows that she had deflected.
He added that after the “powerful blows” were received from kicks and punches, she had the “life squeezed out of her” by being strangled.
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Ms Saunders was described to the jury as being “utterly incapable of defending herself” and was “habitually conditioned to being a punching bag” at the hands of others.
Mr Makepeace said she had been terrorised and had come to accept abuse as “the norm” after entering into a series of abusive relationships.
He explained that an appointment card for the My Sister’s Place domestic abuse centre in Middlesbrough was found in her handbag.
The appointment was scheduled for October 11 - four days after her death.
The jury was told that if Natalie went for help or advice, Charlton “threatened to kill her, and he did exactly that”.
Defence barrister Nicolas Lumley QC said Natalie “did not deserve” to die and that there was “no question this was a tragic and needless death”.
Charlton had claimed Natalie was killed by an intruder but this was ridiculed by Mr Makepeace.
He said: "In a stroke of genius, like something from a novel, that person has somehow formed the hands of the defendant into fists as he slept and caused injury to them."
Natalie's family paid tribute to her last year saying: “We are deeply heartbroken at this difficult time.
“Natalie was a beautiful lady and we will miss her.”
