A DECORATOR told a court yesterday he falsely confessed to stealing jewellery worth £57,000 from a couple's bedroom to get out of a police cell.

Anthony Cormack said he was starting to panic after detectives took him from the cell a third time so he confessed.

The jewellery collection was found in a bag of plaster.

The jury heard taped interviews in which Mr Cormack, 37, said he was in debt but changed his mind about taking the jewellery.

But in evidence, Mr Cormack said he was nervous in the police station.

He told Teesside Crown Court: "I was on the dole, it could have got out that I was fiddling on the dole.

"I admitted to putting a box in a bag of plaster. I just wanted to get out of the police station."

Michael Melton said that after he and his wife, Susan, moved into a tea shop in Staindrop, he hid the items in a bedroom.

When decorators arrived, he forgot about it and when he searched later, it had disappeared.

It was found a few days later in the bag of plaster. Mr Cormack, of Deona Court, Darlington denies the theft and the case continues.