A MAN plotted to murder his boss after forming an obsessive attachment to her, a jury has been told.

David Browning told police "In a nutshell I've killed my boss," the jury at Hove Crown court has been told.

Browning, 51, of Willow Drive, Seaford, worked with Jillian Howell in the payroll department of the University of Brighton.

At the first day of a trial at Hove Crown Court the jury heard he initially disagreed with her management style, the jury was told but formed a close relationship after Ms Howell tried to help Browning deal with depression and the loss of his father.

But Browning stabbed Ms Howell 15 times in the neck, chest and abdomen at her home in Sandgate Road, Brighton, on October 26, last year, the court was told

He then scrawled the word "bully" across her forehead and graffitied her home, before going to John Street police station to hand himself in.

Browning denies murder.

Update 2pm 

Alan Gardner, prosecuting, told the court: "Just after 6am on October 26 the defendant called the Sussex Police emergency line. He told the operator he was outside John Street police station with a shotgun and intended to commit suicide.

"He said to officers 'in a nutshell, I have killed my boss'. He told officers they would find her body at her home address in Sandgate Road." 

There is no dispute that Browning killed Ms Howell, Mr Gardner told the court. He has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. 

However, the prosecutor said the Crown's case was that this was a cold-blooded murder. 

Mr Graham said: "This was a premeditated, coldblooded murder of a woman in her home by a man she trusted as a colleage and a friend. A man she was trying to counsel since the sad loss of his father." 

More to follow. 

The trial continues.