A mother of five was stabbed to death moments after having sex with a friend, a jury heard.

Melanie Gray, 37, was found dead in a hostel in Crawley on April 24 last year.

She was knifed four times before her killer set the bed alight to try to destroy the crime scene.

The blaze set off a fire alarm and when the fire crew arrived at the hostel in Three Bridges Road minutes later, they found her half-naked body lying by the bed.

Her former neighbour Daniel Walker, 23, of Spencers Road, Crawley, denies murder at a trial at Lewes Crown Court.

The court heard Ms Gray and Walker knew each other as they had both stayed at the hostel, run by Crawley Council.

Charles Miskin QC, prosecuting, told the jury the real issue of the case was whether Walker committed the murder or someone else.

He said there was evidence Walker had sex with Ms Gray shortly before she was murdered. He said: "We say the overwhelming inference is it was the defendant who killed her."

Ms Gray, who had been married three times, was staying at the three-storey hostel with her partner, Paul Johnson, who was ruled out of the murder inquiry as he was arrested the day before the killing and held overnight in police custody.

Walker and his girlfriend had moved out of the hostel six weeks before the killing.

Mr Miskin said a couple living on the ground floor heard a male visitor go toMs Gray's upstairs room at about 11.30pm on the night of the murder.

They heard the sound of bedsprings, which suggested sex was taking place.

Shortly afterwards, a female voice was heard but it was difficult to tell if she was laughing or crying.

There was a loud thud before footsteps were heard on the stairs and the front door was slammed.

Moments later the fire alarm was activated.

When Walker was arrested days later, he told police he had spent the evening of the murder drinking in local pubs and was at home with his girlfriend by midnight. He denied ever having sex with Ms Gray.

The trial continues.