The mother of Melinda Korosi gave the jury an insight into the young mum whose former partner is accused of her murder.

Marta Hegyi Csiscman revealed how Miss Korosi, 33, had gone to grammar school in her native Hungary and had excelled at languages, particularly German and English.

At 13, Miss Korosi spent three weeks at a private school in Bath, in the UK, perfecting her English.

“She was doing really well in English, and she worked on her German with a private teacher,” said Mrs Csiscman.

An avid reader as a teenager, she had concentrated on her studies and not gone out much. She went on to graduate from a degree in English at Budapest University.

She also spent a year living in London working as an au pair while continuing to study English. She went on to qualify as a teacher of English language.

After moving to Carlisle, Miss Korosi found work – but not as a language teacher.

First she worked at the city’s McVitie’s biscuit factory and then later she took a job at the Domino’s pizza outlet on London Road.

Melinda’s mother went on to describe how she had first met Miklos Verebes in November 2008, by which time he and Melinda were a couple.

She noticed they would spend “all night on the computer and then sleep the next day”. They were struggling to find work in Budapest and moved to London in December, 2009.

Other than when she had to identify Miss Korosi’s body at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary in September last year, that was the last time she saw her daughter.