A SPURNED lover told his teenage ex-girlfriend he should be "locked up" because he was "not right in the head" just weeks before he killed her, a court heard.

Michael Lane made the comments to Shana Grice when she confronted him about stealing her back door key and using it to sneak into her Portslade home while she slept.

On July 9 last year the 19-year-old woke at around 6am to discover him standing over her in her bedroom, jurors were told. She later called the police but first she contacted Lane, 27, and asked him why he had behaved in that manner.

Just seven weeks later, on August 25, her body was found in her Chrisdory Road bedroom after she failed to turn up to work at Hove-based wholesaler Palmer and Harvey.

In a recording of the conversation, played to the jury at Lewes Crown Court yesterday, Miss Grice rejected his apologies, telling him what he had done was “out of order” and coming into her bedroom while she slept was “just weird”.

She suggested he "got help", to "stop crying and getting all upset about it" and not to do "mad things", adding: "You can’t steal someone’s property and expect just for us to be all alright with it."

Later in the conversation, which lasted just under five minutes, he said: "Obviously something’s not right in my head … and I don’t know what it is but I know I need to find out or be locked up or something."

The mechanic, 27, then asked her not to tell anyone about the incident adding: "I don’t want everyone in Mile Oak to know.”

They agreed not to stay in contact so as to break the "vicious circle", as Miss Grice described it, but first arranged for him to hand back the key at her house at 1pm.

When he arrived police officers were waiting for him. He was arrested and cautioned for the incident, the court heard.

Miss Grice and her housemates Emma King and Angela Stebbings had the locks changed. Security was "tightened" at the house after that, Ms King said on the stand.

The jury also heard the validity of Miss Grice's claims that Lane "bothered", "stalked" and "pestered" her called into question by his defence team when witnesses were cross examined.

Both Ms King and Ms Stebbings gave accounts of their knowledge of the situation. Ms King said she even stepped in to help Miss Grice keep her distance from him. They both said they told her the best thing was to stay away from him.

Answering questions from Simon Russell Flint, defending, they said they were surprised to later discover she was secretly involved with him and had been cheating on her long term boyfriend Ashley Cooke.

Mr Flint said: "She had been deceiving you."

Miss Grice split from Mr Cooke in April last year and struck up an official relationship with Lane. But it was not long before things turned sour and she told him it was over in the days before he stole the key to her house.

Lane, of Thornhill Rise, Portslade, denies murder.

The trial continues.

HE FOLLOWED HER A LOT OF THE TIME, SAYS HOUSEMATE

TEENAGER Shana Grice was so concerned about Michael Lane “bothering her” in the months before she was killed that she complained to her boss.

Emma King, one of her housemates, told jurors this when she gave evidence yesterday.

She and Miss Grice had lived together in Chrisdory Road, Portslade, with Angela Stebbings since January of last year. All three worked at nearby Brighton Fire Alarms, in Foredown Drive, where Lane also worked.

On the stand Ms King, a supervisor at the company, said she accompanied Miss Grice to speak to one of the company’s directors to complain about Lane, Lewes Crown Court heard.

She said on a number of occasions Miss Grice had talked about Lane pestering her with texts and phone calls.

She said: “I tried to help by answering the phone for her so she didn’t have to speak to him.”

But Simon Russell Flint, defending, said: “Throughout this time this was a pretence by Shana. They were, in fact, in a relationship.”

He said she had been replying and responding to the texts in an “affectionate” and “encouraging” way.

Ms King agreed and told how on the night of a work leaving party at the Mile Oak party in March last year Lane had revealed they were seeing each other and showed her messages. When Miss Grice found out she became upset. Ms King also became upset and asked her about the relationship, commenting that everything Miss Grice had told her about the situation “was a lie”, the court heard.

This turned into a row where Miss Grice left the house, Lane followed and the next day she told Ms King he had pulled her hair and grabbed her phone from her ear. She did not go back to the house that night.

In April 2016, Miss Grice split up with her long-term boyfriend Ashley Cooke and shortly afterwards admitted her relationship with Lane. The pair even went to a Rihanna concert together at Wembley Stadium.

Simon Russell Flint, defending, suggested Miss Grice then handed in her notice.

Ms King said Lane’s work van was fitted with a tracker because he would phone in sick and was then seen by Miss Grice’s house during office hours and had gone to spend time with her.

The court heard analysis from the tracker proved he had been visiting her regularly during office time and he was suspended but later resigned.

By early July – around seven weeks before her death – the relationship had ended and Lane was “upset” about this, Ms King said.

She told how Lane started to follow Miss Grice to work and to the supermarket.

She said: “I followed Shana to work one day and saw him drive past me. He followed her a lot of the time. Over the space of a few weeks it was pretty much most days.”

At the beginning of August Lane wrote Miss Grice a letter asking her to pay him back at least a “couple of hundred” pounds for what Ms King called “silly things like car park tickets and meals they’d had together” and perfume he had bought her at the airport when he went on holiday.

Mr Russell Flint suggested Lane was let in to the bungalow through Miss Grice’s open window to see her on a number of occasions but Ms Stebbings said she had never seen this happen. She said: “We were really surprised she was seeing him after everything that had happened.”

‘I DON’T THINK SORRY WILL CUT IT’

AN EXTRACT of a phone call between Shana Grice and Michael Lane on July 9 last year shortly before he was arrested and cautioned for stealing her door key was played in court.

The conversation took place just under two months before she was murdered.

Miss Grice: “So one question that’s really bugging me, why did you take the key in the first place?”

Lane: “Because I wanted to see you … I wanted to see you and properly talk to you and I knew you wouldn’t let me in.”

SG: “Yeah but that’s not good … you could’ve flipped at any point.”

ML: “No, I wouldn’t have flipped.”

SG: “What about if I took someone home or something and then you came in and saw that I was with someone else.”

ML: “I honestly would’ve, I would’ve just left.”

SG: “Well ... but you left anyway …. You have no right at all to.”

Michael Lane (Starting to cry): “I know I didn’t and I know : I’ve got no right or nothing, I know that.”

Shana Grice: “You need to apologise to the girls ’cause it is out of order… just don’t do it again.”

ML: “I won’t come near the house again, I won’t contact you again OK.”

SG: “I think that’s best ’cause it’s just going to keep on going around in this vicious circle isn’t it?”

ML: “Yeah I know, sorry that’s all and I know, I know you don’t, well you won’t accept it and that but I still am sorry OK.”

SG: “Yeah well I really don’t know what else to say to you, I just think it’s just so wrong and so out of order.”

ML: “Definitely.”

SG: “You could’ve done anything, you could’ve done anything else. While I’m sleeping, that’s just weird.”

ML: “Look I’m sorry yeah.”

SG: “… to be honest I don’t think sorry is going to cut it this time, I really don’t… even when you’re saying sorry I can’t believe you.”

ML: “I know I’m just not right in the head, if I was I wouldn’t do it.

“Wouldn’t have done that would I?”

SG: “Well maybe you need to get help then, maybe you need to do something about it and stop crying and getting all upset about it.”

ML: “Yeah I know, I just don’t know what to do though … I know I’ve got a problem and that, I just don’t want to be told that I’m mad and that.”

SG: “Well don’t do mad things then… You can’t steal someone’s property and expect just, just for us to be all all right with it.”

ML:“Obviously something’s not right in my head … and I don’t know what it is but I know I need to find out or be locked up or something.

“Can you just not tell anyone please … I don’t want like everyone in Mile Oak to know.”