A MUM was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend after she refused to take him back, a court has heard.

Hollie Green, 21, is said to have died at the hands of Daniel Gibbons who strangled her in the bedroom of her own home in Southampton.

Jurors at Winchester Crown Court heard how Hollie had been enjoying a night out with friends in Southampton but had been hounded by text messages and phone calls from Gibbons throughout August 30 last year.

Gibbons had been out with his own friends from Totton and Eling Football Club, of which he was a member.

The pair had briefly met up by chance at the Oceana nightclub where they had argued, causing Hollie and her group of girlfriends to leave and move on to another late-night bar.

Prosecutor Tim Mousely told jurors how when the group arrived back at Hollie’s flat at Taranto Road, Lordswood, where the girls were staying the night, Gibbons, 21, was waiting outside.

Mr Mousely explained how the pair went into the flat along with a friend of Hollie’s but when the friend went back outside, Gibbons locked and bolted the door behind her.

He said: “From outside the door they could hear the sound of the door being bolted and the sound of running.”

Despite their pleas to let them in and speak to Hollie, the friends were unable to get inside. One even attempted to climb in through the kitchen window but a blind was pulled down so they couldn’t even look in, said Mr Mousely.

“They could hear Hollie Green screaming at times and crying. They were shouting and asking to be let into the flat,” he told jurors.

Mr Mousely went on to describe how one friend heard the sound of someone falling. “Then she heard Hollie scream, then everything went quiet.”

It was then that one of the group outside raised the alarm and dialled 999. When the police arrived, however, they had to call in officers with specialist equipment to break down the door.

Hollie’s body was found lying on the floor of her bedroom, with Gibbons lying beside her.

Mr Mousely said: “He was lying on his front. He was either genuinely unconscious or, more likely, feigning unconsciousness.”

Gibbons was taken to Southampton General Hospital where after examination he was discharged and formally arrested for Hollie’s murder, to which he responded: “Is she dead?”

Gibbons denies murder.

Proceeding.