Search terms on a computer have been put forward as key evidence in a murder trial involving two Polish citizens resident in Great Britain.

Prosecutors claim that 29-year-old Tomasz Sobczak typed the Polish equivalent of 'how to strangle a human being' on his laptop just hours before his flatmate, Sylwia Ciapcinska, disappeared.

Sobczak, who is pleading not guilty to the murder, is currently on trial at the crown court in Birmingham, central England.

Prosecutors also claim that that the defendant had used a site called 'Polish Serial Killers' in the lead-up to the murder, likewise 'torture porn' web portals.

The victim's body was discovered in a suitcase by the River Trent on 17 September, some two months after the 24-year old went missing from her home in Burton-on-Trent.

Barrister Christopher Hotten, who is leading the case for the prosecution, argues that Mr Sobczak, a married father of two, was in debt and that he emptied the contents of the victim's bank account via her debit card, in the days that followed her disappearance.

A box of the victim's belongings, discovered in the loft of her home, was found to bear the the fingerprints of the accused.

The trial continues. (nh)