A DOUBLE-KILLER used a Second World War bayonet that used to belong to his father to repeatedly stab a prostitute to death.

Teesside Crown Court heard that George Leighers was given the weapon by his brother, Ludvic, following the death of their father, a former prisoner of war, in 1990.

The court heard that the defendant had a keen interest in the Army and kept memorabilia at his home in Montrose Street, Middlesbrough.

Leighers, 48, is accused of murdering Sarah Jane Coughlan, 19. He denies the charge but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In a written statement from Ludvic Leighers, read to the jury, he said his father, Heindrich, had left Germany at the end of the war to move to England, where he settled in Hartlepool and married the defendant's mother.

Following his death, the weapon was given to Ludvic, who then gave it to his eldest brother in the summer of 2002 because of his interest in the Armed Forces.

The prosecution said that a year later, in August, the former psychiatric patient used the bayonet to murder Ms Coughlan at his home.

The court was told that Leighers, who killed his wife, Rita, in September 1996, had been discharged from the care of health professionals in March last year because he had not had a relapse and appeared to be living a stable existence.

His former mental health nurse and a social worker agreed that August was a difficult month for Leighers because it was the time of his wedding anniversary and his dead wife's birthday. It was also the month before the anniversary of his wife's death.

The experts told the court that Leighers had displayed no signs of a relapse or of having depression.

The jury has already heard that Leighers was detained in a mental hospital for six years after he killed his wife at their home in Blackhall Colliery, County Durham.

He later spent time in a home for chronic mentally ill people before he lived independently in the community under the supervision of care workers.

The trial continues.