A middle-aged man murdered his newlywed teenage bride as she slept in their honeymoon bed, a court heard today.

Stephen Michael Butters stabbed his 19-year-old bride Claire six times in the chest as she lay asleep just four days after their marriage, a jury at Teesside Crown Court was told.

Unemployed Butters, 41, denies murdering his wife at their three-bedroomed home in May, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but admits unlawful killing.

Franz Muller QC, prosecuting, said Butters had a penchant for teenage girls and had fathered a total of seven children in three previous relationships.

Claire Butters had been the family babysitter in the late 1990s, when Butters was in a relationship with her cousin, Holly Cummings.

When that relationship ended, Butters fell in love with Claire.

They secretly married at Guisborough Register Office on May 4 - but within four days she was found dead at her home.

The newlyweds regularly disturbed their next door neighbour with the sounds of love-making at their home in High Row, Loftus, Cleveland, Mr Muller said.

Butters was an insomniac who needed sleeping tablets - but he had stopped taking medication a matter of days before the fateful night.

After the knife attack, Mr Muller said, Butters made three unsuccessful suicide attempts, first trying to hang himself, then trying electrocution when that failed.

He later threatened to throw himself off Hummersea Cliffs near the marital home but could not carry it out because "he was frightened of heights, absolutely terrified, petrified of heights", Mr Muller said.

David Robson QC, defending, said Butters admitted unlawfully killing his teenaged bride, but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He could not remember having got the knife, or stabbing Claire, but could remember the events which followed immediately after her death.