A WOMAN whose body lay undiscovered for 12 years under builder’s rubble in a back garden may have suffered a fractured skull after being hit with an object, a court has heard.

Natalia Wilkanowska, 50, was dumped after her Scots-born late husband Gerald Doherty killed her in 2003, but her body was not found at the property in Luton until 2015 and it was claimed she was missing.

Mr Doherty returned to Scotland and died shortly after Ms Wilkanowska’s death, in Port Glasgow.

His two brothers, Daniel, 67, who lives in the property, and Joseph, 73, are on trial at Luton Crown Court charged with perverting the course of justice and obstructing the coroner over the death.

Pathologist Dr Nat Cary, who examined the remains, told the jury: “It was consistent with falling down stairs, being hit with a weapon or being kicked or stamped on.”

The jury heard that Joseph Doherty, the head of the family, told his niece Allison Diamond-Roberts that Natalia had been the victim of a crime of passion.

Mrs Diamond-Roberts said: “He said his aunt had been strangled. He said my uncle (Gerald) had strangled her.

“He said there was no point looking for her as we wouldn’t find her.”

She said she was told she had been chopped up in a caravan which was later set on fire.

The Doherty brothers deny the charges and the trial continues.