A Harrow mother-of-three was strangled and dumped in a canal by her lover on Christmas Day after she taunted him about his dead mother, the Old Bailey heard today.

The body of Ruby Love, 23, was found floating in the Grand Union Canal in Southall, west London, by a dog walker last December 25.

The former Hatch End High School pupil’s boyfriend Manzar Juma, 28, drove her remains to a secluded spot and threw them into the water after throttling her to death at their nearby home hours earlier.

He has admitted the killing but claims he was provoked by Miss Love and was suffering from mental illness at the time.

The pair had been seeing each other for around four years, but their time together had been “peppered with arguments”, said prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC.

He said: “On any view, the relationship was turbulent. There is little doubt each was capable of winding the other up and saying hurtful things in the heat of an argument.

“That much has been admitted by the defendant and as far as Ruby is concerned, the evidence establishes she could be verbally offensive when it suited her.

“You will hear the evidence of a friend of the defendant who recalls she would often taunt him about his mother's death. It appears from the evidence she died when he was only nine years old from cancer.”

In one phone call to her partner, Miss Love claimed she was urinating on his mother's grave, added Mr Rees. Juma had a history of attacking her and had been handed a suspended sentence for two assaults in March 2009.

He and his lover had called the police on each other several times over the years, but no other charges were ever brought, the court heard.

At one point Juma became so concerned about his partner's outbursts he began recording them on his mobile phone.

In one clip played to jurors, she can be heard hurling a torrent of abuse at him and ordering him leave the housing association home they shared in Northolt.

Miss Love, who was born with the name Rubina Malik, had a history of drug use and had worked as a prostitute in the past, the court heard.

She had three children - two of them with Juma - including a newborn baby who was just a month old when she was killed.

The others, an eight-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son, were taken into care, jurors were told.

Her mother Precious and sister Sarah told theHarrow Times how they had lost their “angel” in the days after her death from their home in The Meadow Way, Harrow.

Juma, of Hexham Gardens, Northolt, denies murder but has admitted manslaughter.

He will claim he lost control after he was provoked by his partner and that he was suffering from a personality disorder and depression, the court heard.

The trial continues.