A MAN accused of murdering a teenage prostitute had battered his wife to death 17 years earlier, a court heard yesterday.

George Leighers killed his wife, Rita, in 1986 and fled to Whitby, in North Yorkshire. Convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, he was released after six years - only to kill again.

Yesterday, the former psychiatric patient went on trial at Teesside Crown Court for stabbing to death 19-year-old Sarah Jane Coughlan with a bayonet.

Police discovered the body in the bedroom of his home, and also found a diary with the entry: "Killed again - should have taken my medication."

Leighers, 46, of Montrose Street, Middlesbrough, fled to Cornwall and then boarded a coach to Scotland before handing himself in to police, the jury heard.

The court was told he had followed a similar pattern after killing his wife when he disappeared to Whitby before giving himself up.

Franz Muller, prosecuting, told the jury Leighers was ordered to be detained indefinitely at a mental hospital, but was released after six years to a home for chronic mentally ill people.

He was discharged from the home in 1997, and moved into the terraced house in Middlesbrough.

In March last year, it was decided he no longer needed supervision, but had to make fortnightly visits to his GP for an injection of an anti-psychotic drug.

But within five months he had struck again after meeting Sarah at a newsagent's in Borough Road and inviting her back to his nearby home, the court heard.

Leighers denies murdering Sarah Jane but admits her manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard Leighers was only 30 when he killed his wife at their home in Blackhall Colliery, County Durham, in 1986.

The trial, which is due to last seven days, continues.