A man accused of murder visited his alleged victim's home shortly before she was stabbed to death, a jury heard.

Melanie Gray's half-naked body was found in a hostel in Crawley in April last year.

She was repeatedly stabbed before her killer set fire to the room.

Former hostel resident Daniel Walker, 23, denies murder at a trial at Lewes Crown Court.

Darren Kirby, who was living at the hostel in Three Bridges Road at the time of the killing, told the jury Walker paid a visit on the night of the murder.

Mr Kirby said he was in bed with his girlfriend on the ground floor when they heard banging at the front door late at night.

When the door opened he heard a man say hello and he recognised Walker's voice. He said: "It was Dan Walker."

When asked by Charles Miskin QC, prosecuting, if he had any doubt, Mr Kirby replied: "No. I know the voice."

He said he met Walker eight months earlier when he moved into the hostel. Walker moved out about six weeks before the killing.

He heard the caller go upstairs to the first-floor room where Ms Gray was staying with boyfriend Paul Johnson.

Earlier the jury heard Mr Kirby's girlfriend Corrine Patterson tell the court she heard laughing or crying from Ms Gray's room after the caller arrived.

Minutes after the caller left, the fire alarms went off and residents fled the three-storey hostel, which is run by Crawley Borough Council.

When fire crews arrived they found Ms Gray's body lying beside the bed.

Three knives were close by.

Ms Gray was alone that night as her boyfriend Mr Johnson had been arrested by police that day and held in custody overnight.

The court has heard the prosecution claim there is evidence Walker, of Spencers Road, Crawley, had sex with Ms Gray just before she was killed.

The trial continues.