A man accused of murder confessed to his girlfriend he had sex with the woman he is alleged to have killed, a jury heard.

Daniel Walker admitted he had sex with the murder victim, Melanie Gray, on the night she was stabbed to death but denied killing her.

Ms Gray, 37, was found dead in a hostel where she lived in Crawley in April last year.

The mother-of-five, who worked for West Sussex County Council as a children's chaperone, was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and chest before her killer set fire to the room. Walker, 24, of Spencers Road, Crawley, denies murder at a trial at Lewes Crown Court.

The jury has heard Walker knew Ms Gray as he lived at the hostel in Three Bridges Road until six weeks before the murder.

He was arrested three days after the fatal stabbing after his DNA was found in semen in her body.

The court was told Walker at first denied to police he ever had sex with Ms Gray.

But his girlfriend, Sandra Broderick, the mother of his baby daughter, told the court he confessed to her after a visit to Lewes prison where he has been held on remand since his arrest.

She told him the police informed her his DNA had been found but he continued to deny meeting Ms Gray the night she died or having sex with her.

Ms Broderick said the following day he telephoned her. She said: "He told me he did sleep with Mel and to phone his solicitor and let him know." She said he also admitted having sex on another occasion with Ms Gray's daughter Ceali O'Mahony.

She said Walker told her he had called at the hostel on the night of the murder to visit Ms Gray's boyfriend, Paul Johnson, but he had been arrested by police earlier in the day and held in custody. Walker said Ms Gray was upset and he comforted her by giving her a cuddle and then they had sex.

She said: "He said when he left the room she was alive."

Ms Broderick said when Walker returned home that night she did not notice anything unusual and when she washed his clothes the following day did not see any blood.

The jury of seven women and five men will visit the street where the murder happened this morning. The trial continues.