A father wept as he told a court about the last time he saw his two young children alive in East Sussex.

Paul Donnison, 48, tearfully told jurors he said goodnight to three-year-old Harry and two-year-old Elise Donnison on the evening of January 24 last year while their mother Fiona Donnison watched with a look of "absolute hatred and evil on her face".

The children's suffocated bodies were found zipped up in separate holdalls in the boot of her car near their former family home in Heathfield on the morning of January 27 last year, Lewes Crown Court heard.

Former City worker Donnison, 45, denies two charges of murder.

Describing how he last saw the children in the family home, named Meadowside, Mr Donnison told jurors: "Harry was in his pyjamas and he came over and wrapped his little arms around me and we hugged and I gave him the toy and I was kneeling down. He had his arms around my shoulders and my neck and I was cuddling him.

"And Fiona was standing two or three feet away with a look of absolute hatred and evil on her face. That was the last time I saw him alive.

"I then went to Elise's bedroom and she was peacefully asleep. She didn't wake. And that was the last time I saw Elise."

The trial was adjourned until 10.30am tomorrow when Mr Donnison will continue being cross-examined.