CLEANER and maintenance man Dominic Isom has a history of aggressive behaviour, first turning on partner Samantha Henderson in April 2013.

During the incident, he attempted to wrench a mobile phone away from her, denying her claims that he had grabbed her by the hair, pulling her towards him.

He eventually accepted common assault before magistrates.

But on January 21 this year, violence erupted once again outside the couple's Corfe Castle home, and Isom inflicted the injuries that led to Ms Henderson's death.

The petite mother-of-four - who weighed just under seven stone - suffered 23 separate injuries before she died, including a nine-and-a-half centimetre gash to her forehead, as well as a significant bruise to her throat.

Isom told jurors that he then carried her body into the shed outside their home, laying her inside a plastic bag used for protecting mattresses during a house move and then wrapping this with a pink, child's Hello Kitty duvet.

He added items including his tartan slippers to the bundle as they were covered in Ms Henderson's blood, but was to later tell police - as well as Ms Henderson's mother, Janelle - that she had walked out on him that afternoon wearing the slippers.

Isom then constructed "a whole sequence of lies", prosecutor Ian Lawrie QC was to tell jurors, beginning by sending a Whatsapp message to Ms Henderson's phone on the day of her death.

The message read: "Sam, where are you? Please come back. You're better than running away. We all love you."

Later messages sent to Ms Henderson's phone from Isom's read: "Sam, I can't do this on my own" and "I fell asleep at the window last night waiting for you to come back."

He also left two tearful voicemails on January 22 after reporting her missing to the police earlier that day.

In these, Isom wept: "Please listen, you can't stay away any longer, please come back - I need you back here Sam, please," and: "You don't have to go away and live another life - it'll get better.

"Sam, please come back. I love you. Phone me, please."

He would go on to be interviewed by police a total of ten times, and admitted during the trial that he had lied on each of those occasions.

During one of these interviews, he became "hysterical", attempting to stab himself in the neck with an officer's pencil, the court head.

Mr Lawrie told jurors Isom had shown a tendency to "histrionics", adding: "You name it, he deploys it in order to thwart the police."

The prosecutor also commented on on Isom's "ability to sob and cry when it suits him".

Indeed, the trial was delayed for half an hour on one day because the defendant was crying inconsolably, causing a dock officer to burst into tears too.

He also wept almost constantly as he gave evidence, telling jurors repeatedly that he "hadn't been thinking straight" and he was "panicking".

But Mr Lawrie said that when the defendant was unable to "confront reality" he "will lie", or say that he "can't explain, doesn't know, can't remember".

Isom contended that he had never meant to hurt Ms Henderson.

Acting for the defence, Nigel Lickley QC told jurors that Isom "didn't want to harm [Ms Henderson], he did not want to kill and he did not want to cause serious bodily harm."

He added: "[Isom] has got to have that murderous intent for it to be murder."

On Friday, jurors found Isom guilty, agreeing with the evidence against him.