THE girlfriend of a murder accused has told of their dire financial situation in the months before he is said to have killed a pensioner after going to her home looking for cash.

Charlotte Stokes said partner Gareth Dack, 33, had secretly borrowed from friends, taken out a loan, and the couple had relied on his parents for hand-outs to make ends meet.

Dack was on the sick from his well-paid job as an asbestos lagger, and was receiving just £30 a week in sickness pay, Miss Stokes told Teesside Crown Court on Monday.

The mother-of-two told the jury that she worked part-time as a care assistant in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, and was paid income tax credits and child tax credits each month.

Dack's father Ian also gave evidence on the eighth day of the murder trial, and explained how his son owed someone £2,000 at Christmas 2015 and it was being paid off at £250 a month.

Miss Stokes also told the court how he did not want to talk about the death of Norma Bell, whose body was found in her burning home in Westbourne Road, Hartlepool, last April.

Mother-of-nine Mrs Bell, 79, who fostered more than 50 children with her late husband, lived in the same street as Dack's parents and he had grown up with one of her sons, John.

As well as borrowing money from friends, family and a pay-day loan company, Dack also visited Mrs Bell and asked for £20 a week before she was found murdered in her living room.

The prosecution say the drug-using dad-of-four returned to steal money or valuables that he could quickly sell - and took £700 in cash and a brand new boxed 49-inch television.

Miss Stokes told how she had never heard her partner talk about the widow, until the day he borrowed money from her, and said: "He said it was Norma and had known her years."

She said after the murder was being discussed on social media websites, Dack was reluctant to talk about it, adding: "He didn't say much, just that it was sad."

Dack, of Windermere Road, Hartlepool, denies charges of murder and arson - strangling Mrs Bell and setting fire to her home to try to destroy the evidence.

The jury of six men and six women has heard how Dack had borrowed £30 from a friend who Miss Stokes feared "wanted to kill" her partner because he had not repaid it.

Miss Stokes also told the jury that the couple had argued about him taking drugs in the family home, and after packing his bags and walking out he vowed not to do it again.

Answering questions from Christopher Tehrani, QC, prosecuting, Miss Stokes revealed how she suspected that Dack viewed pornographic websites.

Mr Tehrani said the person who murdered Mrs Bell had watched soft-porn channel Babestation and called scantily-clad women on the screen for sex chats throughout the night of the killing.

The trial continues.