A KILLER who plunged a kitchen knife into her boyfriend's heart witnessed her father murder her mother when she was five years old, it emerged yesterday.

On Friday, Louisa Ovington, who has a long history of drug and alcohol problems, was sent to prison indefinitely after she admitted stabbing Maurice Hilton to death as he lay naked in her bed in Beechdale Close, Station Town, County Durham.

The Northern Echo has learned that Ovington, now 27, witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of her Algerian-born father 22 years ago.

In 1984, Mohammed Khelifati repeatedly stabbed his estranged wife, Mary, leaving her bleeding to death in the stairwell of the Edinburgh flat where she had sought refuge with her daughter.

He was jailed in Scotland and, after serving 15 years behind bars for the murder, fought a long but unsuccessful battle against deportation to his home country.

Now his daughter is behind bars after admitting manslaughter at Newcastle Crown Court, having been acquitted by a jury of murdering 46-year-old Mr Hilton.

In January, Ovington - who has previous convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, threats to kill, carrying knives and criminal damage - killed her boyfriend of six years in a drunken rage after he boasted of his sexual conquests.

The court heard that she had sent a text message to a friend saying: "He came over bragging about his conquests. I just saw red."

She also told the court: "I was very drunk. I feel very guilty and very sorry for what I have done."

Judge John Milford sentenced Ovington to a period of indefinite detention for the protection of the public, and described her as "emotionally unstable".

Yesterday, detective superintendent Andy Reddick, who led the murder inquiry, said: "We consider Miss Ovington to be a highly-dangerous individual who appears to have a lack of control, and when this is mixed with drink the results can be very violent.

"Eventually, if she is released, I think she will pose significant challenges for all agencies responsible for public protection."

Ovington was adopted following her mother's murder and her father's imprisonment.

Khelifati left Algeria in the mid-1960s and moved to France, where he is known to have served a prison term for a violent attack on a woman.

In 1976, he met Ovington's mother, who came from Stonehaven, in Scotland, and the couple were married within a year.

Louisa was born three years later.

However, the relationship soured and Mary Khelifati left her husband when Louisa was four years old.