A ROSSENDALE mother-of-four was murdered and buried under a cellar floor where her body remained undiscovered for eight years, a court heard.

The skeleton of Dorothy Carre, 56, who was originally from Bacup, was only discovered after police searched the cellar of a house in Rochdale earlier this year when her daughter reported her missing for the second time.

Her former partner, Frederick Lawlor, 54, is accused of stabbing her with "extreme force" at least 10 times. He denies murdering Mrs Carre between March 10 and June 30 1999.

Manchester Crown Court was told that Lawlor murdered Mrs Carre in the front bedroom of the Victorian terraced house they shared in Equitable Street, Rochdale.

He then bound her naked body at the ankles, wrapped her in a duvet and put her under the slabs in the cellar floor, it was alleged.

Lawlor, who the jury was told has a history of violence against women, then moved home and went on to claim he had never lived at the address and his partner had gone to live in Ireland.

Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, told the jury Mrs Carre, a divorcee, met the defendant in 1993 and by 1995 had lost contact with her family.

She was last seen alive by her GP on March 11, 1999, when she told her doctor she had split from her partner because he was violent towards her.

By 2001 her daughter Lynn Edwards reported her missing, but only "limited" inquiries were made by police.

But in January 2006, she again reported her mother as a missing person and police investigated more thoroughly.

Inquiries led them to Lawlor and the address it is alleged they shared in Equitable Street, the jury heard.

On March 12 this year, police inspected the property's brick-lined cellar and officers noticed two of the flagstones appeared to be disturbed.

They lifted the flagstones to discover a human skeleton wrapped in a duvet. No clothing was found, suggesting the body was naked, and there was synthetic cord near the ankles, indicating the feet had been bound, Mr Flewitt said.

A post-mortem showed the bones had at least 10 stab wounds to the vertebrae, some inflicted from behind. To stab through the body into the bone required "extreme" force, according to the pathologist, who gave the cause of death as multiple stab wounds.

Blood stained carpets were recovered but a DNA profile could not be obtained directly from the crime scene.

But further tests of DNA from Mrs Carre's medical records and her children provided "extremely strong" scientific evidence that the human remains were hers.

Lawlor was arrested on March 19, telling police he and Mrs Carre had lived together in Bolton but she had left to live in the Republic of Ireland in 1999. He claimed that although he had worked as a taxi driver in Rochdale, he had never lived at Equitable Street.

But council tax and housing benefit claim forms linked him to the address, along with eye witnesses who maintain he lived there, Mr Flewitt told the court.

Another "damning" piece of evidence was his fingerprint found on a car wheel police took from the cellar.

The jury was also told Lawlor had a history of violence towards Mrs Carre and other women.

In November 1987 he was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after stabbing his partner Nora Roche repeatedly.

This was "strikingly similar" to the attack which had killed Dorothy Carre, Mr Flewitt added.

The trial continues.