THE sister of a nurse murdered by her Internet lover has left her husband for a man she met in a chatroom.

The family of North-East grandmother-of-six Valerie Joice, 46, - devastated by the savage killing of her youngest sister - have pleaded with her to abandon plans to marry her North African sweetheart.

But Valerie, from Ferryhill, County Durham, who divorced disabled husband Dougie Wynn after her love affair developed, will meet 28-year-old Merouane Azzi face-to-face for the first time in Tunisia this winter.

She said: "I am madly in love with Merouane and cannot wait to meet him."

Valerie's sister Sandra Mc-Kean, 38, was stabbed to death in her bed after she ended her own Internet romance.

Divorcee Sandra had turned down a marriage proposal by Paul Evison, 38, who she met on the Internet.

He then drove 200 miles from Nottingham to Sandra's North Tyneside home to kill her in April last year.

Sandra's mother, Elsie Joice, 72, has said she is terrified the same thing will happen to Valerie.

Mrs Joice, of Ferryhill, said: "She is my eldest daughter and I could not believe it when she told me she had met someone on the Internet.

"This man cannot get into England so she wants to go to Tunisia to meet him and marry him.

"It is worrying me sick."

Valerie has three grown-up children - daughters Amanda, 24, Tracey, 29, and son Jonathon, 21.

Amanda, a mother-of-one who lives with her mother, has pleaded with her not to go.

But Valerie said: "Everyone is worried because of what happened to my sister.

"But I could go into a pub and stand the same chance of meeting a lunatic as I would on-line."