A grim portrait of life for Bradford prostitute Maureen Stepan was emerging today at Sheffield Crown Court during the trial of George Naylor who is accused of her murder.

Prostitutes who worked alongside Stepan in the City Road and Jowett Street area of Thornton Road told of Asian vigilante attacks and violence from clients.

One prostitute told how Stepan had been punched in the face by a punter only days before her death. And Caroline Styslo, a 22-year-old prostitute who had known Stepan in a children's home when she was 13, told how she last saw her friend at 11.30pm on the day before she was found dead on June 9, 1995.

Earlier the court heard Naylor killed Stepan after becoming jealous over his wife going out.

Paul Worsley QC, prosecuting, told the court the 18-year-old prostitute was strangled with her tights in her own home and burned with cigarettes afterwards.

Naylor, of Castle Square, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, denied murdering Stepan, a heroin addict who worked and lived in the Bradford red-light district.

Naylor had telephoned his wife, but was told by her landlady that she was out. He became jealous because she did not normally go out alone.

Mr Worsley said when Naylor telephoned his wife, he asked the landlady: "Is the slag of Newcastle there?"

She replied: "She has gone out."

Mr Worsley said Taylor, who was lodging and working in Bradford, then went with Stepan, who lived in the City Road area near the Raging Bull pub which was used by Naylor.

He said Naylor stripped the woman naked, strangled her with her tights and stubbed a cigarette on her body.

He added: "The matter we hear demonstrates a hatred of women."

Naylor denies murdering Maureen Stepan on June 9, 1995.

The case continues.

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