The mother of a teenager accused of murder gave evidence against her own son today.

Deborah Evans, the mother of Kevin Littlewood, told a jury at Teesside Crown Court, that her son had rung her to say he had fought with 18-year-old John Paul Robert Jeffries, whose body was found on January 24 this year beaten to death and wedged in sea defence rocks at Hartlepool Marina. He had been missing for six days.

Her 18-year-old son, of St Paul's Road, Hartlepool, denies murdering Mr Jeffries and also denies a charge of theft of a video recorder and a CD player belonging to Mr Jeffries' father.

She said: "He said he had had a fight with a boy called John Paul Jeffries and he said he might have hurt him and that he might be dead."

The case continues.