Romy Maynard charged with the murder of north London transgender woman Chrissie Azzopardi

Source Huffington Post: A man stabbed a transgender woman to death in her bedroom before leaving her decomposing body undiscovered for more than a month, a court has heard. Romy Maynard, 28, is on trial accused of killing 22-year-old Chrissie Azzopardi at her home in Crescent Way, north London, in April last year.

Azzopardi, who was due to undergo gender surgery later that year, was found lying on her bed with fatal stab wounds after neighbours noticed a bad smell coming from her flat and raised the alarm in June 2012, the Old Bailey heard. Opening the prosecution's case, Mark Heywood QC said the victim had been stabbed in the chest, pushed down and then stabbed again with force which had pierced her heart.

"The killing was swift and brutal," the barrister said. "It is likely she fought back but was very quickly overwhelmed. The killer then left her while she lay on the bed, dead or dying. In all probability she knew her killer and she allowed him there. He covered her face with one of the pillows from the bed, either to finish his work or perhaps to avoid her stare in death. The crown says this killing is the work of the defendant. He says he is not the killer and so that it must be someone else."

 Romy Maynard lived just down the road from Chrissie Azzopardi with his wife and children. It is said that there were multiple phone conversations prior to her murder.