A prostitute allegedly hammered to death by her flatmate had thrown the accused out of the house and hid kitchen knives because she feared for her safety, a court has heard.

Edyta Zawadzka, 30, is on trial charged with murdering her housemate Julia Anders, 43, between November 16 and 30 last year.

The alleged victim’s sister, Alicja Antoniou, who gave evidence at Isleworth Crown Court on June 11, told the jury her sister on numerous occasions threw out Ms Zawadzka after she learned she had used her bank cards and stolen money from her.

The pair worked as prostitutes from a first floor flat in The Towers, Lower Mortlake Road, and Ms Zawadzka hit Ms Anders, a mother-of-three, over the head with a hammer because she was jealous she had more clients, the prosecution claimed.

Ms Zawadzka, a former nanny of the alleged victim, would often return to the flat when Ms Anders let her back in, the court heard.

Mrs Antoniou said: “She started being not kind of nice and texting my sister that she will harm her children and my sister.

“I specifically remember her saying that she was scared and was taking all the knives in the kitchen and hiding them because she was so scared.”

Mrs Antoniou told the court her sister had recounted a conversation where the defendant allegedly said she would work her way into the family or would “destroy” her.

She told the court the two flatmates would sometimes visit her at her restaurant in Ealing before they went out, and the last time she saw her sister, on November 2, she was behaving strangely and out of character.

Mrs Antoniou reported her missing to the police on November 27 and was told by Ms Zawadzka she had gone away with her new American boyfriend, who was a bad influence, the jury heard.

She said her sister was a very trusting and spiritual person.

She said: “She was kind of a mother to her [the defendant] and she was kind of treating her like a child and thought that one day she will learn and she will stop lying and stop stealing.”

Police found Ms Anders, formerly Bernadeta Nawracaj, dead in a pool of blood in her Richmond flat on November 30 last year.

Ms Zawadzka denies murder.

The trial continues.