A MAN accused of strangling his partner at an Essex holiday park had a history of violent attacks on his previous partners, a court has heard. Lisa Sullivan's lifeless and badly bruised body was found by one of her children after she was allegedly murdered by 33-year-old Terry Game.

A MAN accused of strangling his partner at an Essex holiday park had a history of violent attacks on his previous partners, a court has heard.

Lisa Sullivan's lifeless and badly bruised body was found by one of her children after she was allegedly murdered by 33-year-old Terry Game.

Mrs Sullivan, 41, was the daughter of well-known 1970s folk star Lennie Peters, part of the duo Peters and Lee.

Game and Mrs Sullivan were staying at the Martello Caravan Park in Walton-on-the-Naze with Mrs Sullivan's three children in August last year.

Dorian Lovell-Pank , QC, prosecuting at Basildon Crown Court, said the holiday started well for the couple but tensions built and fellow holidaymakers heard arguing and Game was allegedly seen hitting his partner.

During the night of August 2 shouts, screams and bangs were allegedly heard from their caravan.

The following morning the eldest of Mrs Sullivan's sons went to the site shop asking to use the payphone and said, “my mum's cold and there is no air coming out”.

Police and ambulance were called but Mrs Sullivan was declared dead and a post mortem at Colchester General Hospital showed she had cuts, scratches and bruising around her neck and was “injured from head to toe”.

The jury was told she had bruising in her eyes and pin-prick marks on her face and upper neck - “classic signs of strangulation”.

Game has denied murdering Mrs Sullivan, who he started seeing in early 2005, but a jury heard he accepts that he killed her but said she had attacked him first.

He claimed the night of Mrs Sullivan's death they went to bed in the caravan and were kissing and cuddling before she told Game to leave her alone.

He said he had woken later that night to find Mrs Sullivan attacking him with a sock filled with coins.

“He grabbed her by putting his right arm around her neck from behind, he says he was trying to calm her and stop her from hitting him,” Mr Lovell-Pank said.

Game told police he had used “reasonable force” and when he let go of his partner, who he lived with in Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, she was still breathing and that he had not meant to harm her.

Early the next morning Game left the site and went to buy cigarettes from a sea-front store and when he returned he found Mrs Sullivan “purple and stiff”.

He told police he had panicked, leaving the caravan and Mrs Sullivan's three children, before turning himself into police in Hertford the next day.

“He had killed Lisa Sullivan, he had left her dead on the bed to be found by the children,” Mr Lovell-Pank said.

Mr Lovell-Pank told the court that the death could look like an unfortunate or tragic accident but said: “Terry Game has a history of abuse and violence towards women he became involved with.

“He gets involved and it starts well, he is kind and considerate - a honeymoon period - but after a few months things go sour.

“He becomes abusive and violent, flies off the handle for little reason - things, of course, are never his fault, the fault is always of the woman.”

He told the jury they would be hearing from Game's ex wife, Amanda Eady, who claims he attacked her, pushing her up against a wall with both hands around her neck.

It was alleged she could not breathe and started to panic and thought she was going to die.

“When he finally let go, he punched her in the face,” he said.

Emma Crump, who was seeing Game shortly before his relationship started with Mrs Sullivan, alleges Game once demonstrated to her how he could have strangled her, placing his hands round her throat and squeezing.

Mr Lovell-Pank said it was for the jury to work out when, why and how the death occurred.

The case continues.