A YOUNG man has admitted killing an elderly widow who was robbed for her £2 fish supper.

Marie Watson, 77, died ten days after she was thrown to the floor and robbed of her shopping bag containing a cod and a few personal items.

Frail Mrs Watson suffered massive facial injuries, bruises to her body, broken ribs and a broken arm in the mugging, which happened just yards from her home.

Trevor Cook, 20, of Clayton Road, Jesmond, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to Mrs Watson's manslaughter, and a charge of conspiracy to rob which involved the mugging of a further nine women, one aged 88, for their bags.

His co-accused, Denise Thompson, 22, of Rothbury Terrace, Heaton, Newcastle, admitted conspiracy to rob Mrs Watson.

Cook was due to stand trial for murder at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, but the prosecution accepted his guilty plea to manslaughter before a jury was sworn in.

Toby Hedworth, prosecuting, said: "Cook had done this sort of thing numerous times before and if resistance continued, as there was in Marie Watson's case, he was prepared to use excessive force."

During legal argument before the plea was accepted, an extract from Mrs Watson's police statement, which she made from her death bed, was read out in court.

It said: "I felt someone strike me on my right side and grab my shopping bag. As this person grabbed my bag I kept hold of it and this person dragged me to the ground.

"I fell and landed hard on the right side of my body. My face hit the pavement also. As I was falling to the ground, this person ran off with it."

Mrs Watson's death provoked outrage across Britain. Home Secretary David Blunkett sent his personal wishes to her four children.

The widow was attacked after buying fish from a chip shop 200 yards from her home in Heaton, Newcastle.

David Robson, for Thompson, said: "They were together in a house when Marie Watson walked past the house. Cook went out and carried out the offence."

Mrs Watson, who was partially deaf and partially sighted, was taken to Newcastle General Hospital after a neighbour in Spencer Street heard her cries for help. She was later released from hospital but never recovered.

Her daughter, Beth, said: "We don't want anyone else to go through the agony we have been through."

Cook and Thompson will be sentenced today and Mr Justice Henriques warned that custody was "inevitable" in both cases.