A 35-year-old woman has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with the murder of her housemate.

Monika Matracka from the Pines, Briarfield, Castletroy in Co Limerick, has denied murdering Michal Rejmer between 30-31 December 2015.

Opening the case to the jury, prosecuting counsel Paul Carroll said Mr Rejmer was a Polish national who had been living in Ireland for some time.

He had been in a relationship with the accused, which had ended, but they had continued to share a house with one other person who was away in Poland at the time.

He was reported missing on 6 January 2016 after colleagues became concerned when he had not turned up for work at MacDonald's in Castletroy for a number of days.

He was last seen on 30 December.

Gardaí called to his home on 6 January where they interviewed Ms Matracka who told them she had not seen him since 3 December.

Two days later gardaí called again to the house.

Ms Matracka said she had not seen Mr Rejmer but this would not be unusual because they often did not see each other due to shift work.

She also told gardaí she had sent him a text message on 2 January to wish him a Happy New Year but did not receive a reply.

She said she was now beginning to worry that something had happened to him.

On the same day during a search by local volunteers, Mr Rejmer's body was located in the back garden of his home, covered with plastic.

His body was identified the following day by his manager.

A post-mortem examination showed he died from a number of stab wounds to his arms. He also had defensive wounds on his hands.

Mr Carroll told the jury that on 9 January 2016, while gardaí were examining a garage at the scene, Ms Matracka became upset and told gardaí "I did it. I killed Michal."

She was later arrested and told gardaí she was acting in self-defence.

In her statements to gardaí, she said Mr Matracka had entered her room with a knife and was grabbing her and shaking her and screaming that he needed money.

Some years previously he had given her money for study and was looking for it back.

She told gardaí he fell down the stairs and the knife fell from his hand. She said she picked it up and when he went to get up again she stabbed him.

Mr Carroll told the jury "she was effectively saying that she was attacked first and she was defending herself".

He told the jury it was the prosecution's case that the evidence would show that a murder verdict should be returned.

However, he told the jury it would have to consider issues about self-defence as would be claimed by the accused.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.