MURDER victim Mark Shaw never knew that he had fathered a baby daughter weeks before he was killed, his family have revealed.

Several months after his death his relatives were contacted by a woman who told them she was carrying his child.

The woman, a friend of the family, said she had slept with Mark in early December, around two weeks before he was murdered by his friend, Kieran Adey, and girlfriend at the time, Zoe Warren.

It is understood the 29-year-old had only been going out with Warren, now 20, a week or so, before she helped kill him at his Pine Street home in Grange Villa, near Chester-le-Street.

Mr Shaw already had a 12-year-old son, who lives with his mother, but news of a second child was not something his mother, Val Watson, of Great Lumley, was expecting.

Mrs Watson, 56, said: “The mother was worried about coming to see us. She knew we would be upset. It was hard with Mark not being here.

“She was so worried about telling us she was having Mark’s baby.”

Baby Layla was born on September 11 and has already won over family members.

Mrs Watson, a catering assistant, said: “Mark would have been absolutely elated because he knows how much I wanted a baby granddaughter.

“It is heart-breaking though that Mark is not here to be her Dad. He didn’t even know she was pregnant.

“I knew that my other daughters, Micheala and Haley, would not have another one.

“Here I am with a baby granddaughter that has been given to us.

“It is as if he has sent us a gift. That is how it feels. At first we were like ‘Oh God, no'. But now it is like he has left us something. She is like a baby doll.

“Whenever I see her I fall apart.”

Mark’s big sister, Micheala Holmes, said they learned about the unexpected baby from a relative.

The insurance advisor said: “We got in touch with the mother and had a meeting.

“We said we would support her through it and the baby was born on September 11. She is a close family friend. We have known her for a long time so we do believe her.”

Mrs Holmes, 39, said the family would continue to support baby Layla throughout her life and tell her about her Dad so his memory is not forgotten, as they will with his son.

“We have got (his son) as part of the memory and we see him all the time. He is so important and has been part of our lives for 12 years.

“He is feeling it though with not having his dad no more. Mark was involved in his life but he did not live with him.

“At the top of his Instagram account he has got: ‘I love my Dad and I miss him’.”