Model ‘strangled by cyberstalker whose proposal she spurned’

Martin Vernarsky lavished his life savings on 34-year-old Ildiko Dohany, giving her £5,000 for an Audi and cash for a deposit on a house.

Sheffield Crown Court heard he even bought a ring for the warehouse supervisor, but she only regarded him as her best friend.

When Vernarsky, 24, learned Miss Dohany was due to fly to Hungary for her sister’s wedding, he hacked into her emails to view explicit messages she had received from boyfriends.

Nicholas Clarke QC said his frustration finally ended in him strangling her, but he then pretended he had found her lifeless body in the car he had bought her.

Vernarsky, a Czech national, of Claywood Road, Norfolk Park, Sheffield, worked with Miss Dohany at a logistics firm in the Attercliffe area of the city. He denies murder.

When interviewed by police he said he had a complicated relationship with the victim. He was aware she did glamour modelling involving nudity but he said it was “art rather than pornography”.

The victim, a Hungarian national, worked as an au pair, then moved to Sheffield and shared a flat close to Vernarsky’s home.

Paramedics found Vernarsky trying to resuscitate the victim on September 9 last year but there was no sign of life and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Vernarsky was arrested and Mr Clarke said he had then “repeatedly lied” to officers in his account of what had happened.

“The Crown suggest he was completely infatuated with the deceased. He was in daily contact with her, gave her his life savings to buy a car and money as a deposit on a house, “ said Mr Clarke.

“By the beginning of September he realised she did not want to marry him as he hoped.

“He was cyberstalking her and accessed her email account 800 times in the three days before she was killed.”

The trial continues.