A mother-of-one was hammered to death in front of her toddler by her partner after he discovered Facebook messages from an old flame, a court has heard.

Muhammad Asad Khan Niazi, 29, admits killing Philippino carer Charito ‘Che’ Cruz, who was 37, on September 29 last year by striking her on the back and sides of the head more than 50 times.

Their landlord found him sitting at their bedsit in Cambridge Road, Kingston, watching TV with their two-year-old daughter in his arms as Ms Cruz’s blood-covered body lay nearby, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Mr Niazi denies murder claiming he was suffering from severe depression, the prosecution told the jury.

But prosecutor Bobbie Cheema said: “He killed her with many deliberate blows to the head using a hammer.

"She bled to death on the floor of their bed sitting room in front of their two year old daughter.”

While Ms Cruz was working two jobs in a care home and as a nanny since arriving from the Philippines, Mr Niazi was not allowed to work because of his immigration status from Pakistan.

He refused to cook and clean as he was caring for their daughter, the jury heard.

He was also jealous of Ms Cruz’s contact with an ex-boyfriend from the Philippines, now married and living in Wales, who she texted and phoned many times a day, the court heard.

The day before she was killed, Mr Niazi had been released on police bail after admitting criminal damage to her I-phone.

Ms Cruz had made an appointment to visit the domestic violence One Stop Shop and made enquiries about changing the locks, the court heard.

But the jury heard she left a friend’s house she had been staying at in a tearful state to go home.

Half an hour later fellow tenants heard fighting and a crying child before the noise stopped, the court was told.

Ms Cheema said: “He simply couldn’t cope with the thought of her leaving him and was afraid he would lose contact with his child.”

The trial is expected to last five days. Mr Niazi denies murder.