Wife killed after altering Facebook status to 'single', court told
Sarah was stabbed 13 times in the attack by Edward Richardson, murder trial jurors heard.
The wounds from a knife cut through her aorta, went into her liver and penetrated her lungs, said the pathologist who examined her body.
The jury at Stafford crown court have been told that the body of 26-year-old Sarah was found in a bedroom at her parents' home in Lyndhurst Drive, Brown Lees, on 12 May last year.
Joiner Richardson, aged 41, of Mayfield Road, Biddulph, admits killing her, but denies a charge of murder.
On the third day of his trial, the jury heard the killing happened the day after Sarah changed her personal profile on the internet website Facebook from "married" to "single".
Giving evidence, pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar said he carried out a post-mortem examination of Sarah's body.
He found more than 50 separate injuries to her, including 13 stab wounds together with "defensive" incised wounds to her hands and bruises where she had come into contact with her attacker.
Six of the stabs wounds were in the back. One of them had damaged a lung and the diaphragm and "completely went through the aorta", the body's most important blood vessel.
"If you cut through a major artery... you cease to function. Collapse would have occurred pretty rapidly; 10 to 30 seconds," Dr Kolar said.
In addition, there were two stab wounds in her neck, two in her chest and one each in her thigh and shoulder. One wound to the back had severed a rib, others had entered her lungs and a stab wound to her chest had pierced her liver.
Asked what kind of force would have been needed to damage the rib in this way, Dr Kolar replied: "In my opinion, the upper end of the scale, severe or considerable."
The cause of death was stab wounds to the chest and back.
The prosecution alleges that Richardson murdered his estranged wife in a "relentless and merciless" attack.
The couple had split up around three weeks before Sarah was killed.
The trial continues.
