A DRUG addict was last night jailed for sixteen-and-a-half years for murdering a 16-year-old student.

Paul Knappett cannot remember stabbing Kimberley Bage at least 22 times in a frenzied attack at her home.

The 30-year-old sneaked into the terraced house in Hartlepool and knifed Kimberley as she slept on a sofa in the early hours of April 15.

He was caught after he made confessions to his family. They contacted police and provided them with the blood-stained clothes he had been wearing.

Knappett had earlier denied murder on the grounds he could not recall the attack because of the cocktail of drugs he had taken in the hours leading up to it.

Yesterday, he changed his plea after a medical expert accepted the amphetamine and valium could have made him violent and left him with memory loss.

Last night, 16-year-old Kimberley's mother reacted with anger to the sentence.

Mother-of-three Paula Hanley said: "Knappett may have been sentenced to life, but the reality is that one day he will be released from prison.

"Our family are condemned to a life sentence from which we will never be free."

Teesside Crown Court was told that Knappett knew Kimberley's family and regularly visited their home in Troutpool Close, on the Central Estate, to buy amphetamine from Ms Hanley.

Nicholas Campbell, prosecuting, said Knappett might have been intending to go to his home in Wentworth Grove but must have broken into Kimberley's house, on the way.

One theory is that Knappett - who had fallen out with Ms Hanley on earlier occasions - had meant to attack her instead of her daughter, as she often slept on the sofa.

Knappett told his mother and his father that he had stabbed Ms Hanley when he visited them the following day and asked his father to burn the clothes he had been wearing.

After being turned in, Knappett was interviewed five times by detectives - giving differing versions of what might have happened, and claiming his confession was "a sick joke".

His barrister, Alistair MacDonald, said the drugs Knappett had taken had "significantly impaired" his judgement and caused him to behave in a "totally uncharacteristic and aggressive manner".

Mr Justice Field told Knappett: "Why you murdered Kimberley is a mystery. She didn't deserve her brutal and untimely death.

"She must have begged you to stop but you carried on regardless. She must have died a terrible death."

Knappett will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years and 313 days because of the amount of time he has been behind bars since his arrest.