Seaford tent murder: Christopher Cole admits stopping CPR

Christopher Cole is on trial for murdering his girlfriend, who was found dead in a tent at the Buckle Holiday Park, near Seaford, in a fit of anger.

Cole denies killing Sarah Clayton, 21, and was frantic when he returned to the tent to find her cold and unresponsive in May 2018.

In a harrowing 999 call played in court, an emergency operator tried to talk Cole through how to perform CPR.

Cole had training in resuscitation but told the court that he stopped within seconds of starting.

Sarah Clayton was found dead in May 2018

He said: "I had stopped, I couldn’t physically do it. I tried my hardest."

“I did what I thought was best at the time and I don’t regret any of it.

Cole told the court the couple had argued after coming back to find their tent waterlogged.

Other campers described hearing choking noises coming from their tent overnight and a man saying, “If you don’t shut up, I will shut you up”.

READ MORE: 'I was in an endless nightmare, I was hysterical' - man accused of tent murder

Cole, who worked as a cleaner in Sussex police stations, was found in a distressed state 43 seconds into his 999 call.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: “You knew what you had done. You knew there was no point in trying CPR.

“You knew you had killed her and that’s what you had meant to do.”

Christopher Cole denies murdering Sarah Clayton

Cole told Lewes Crown Court his family had taken Ms Clayton in when she was using drugs and living in a tent.

He said she was given strict rules about staying away from drugs or she would be thrown out of his parents house in Littlehampton.

• READ MORE: 'I think he's strangling her, she's choking' - witnesses describe tent row

Cole, from Littlehampton, said the had been in a relationship for more than five months before her death and planned to marry.

The trial continues.