A WOMAN who confessed to murdering her boyfriend wrote to her new lover from prison after he reported her to police and suggested he could find himself locked up for sex offences, a jury heard.

Paul Strong, giving evidence against Zoe Warren, said the 19-year-old admitted beating Mark Shaw with a golf club and stabbing him to ‘put him out of his misery’ last December.

Mr Strong told Newcastle Crown Court he started a relationship with her less than a fortnight after the brutal murder in Grange Villa, near Chester-le-Street, before Christmas.

He said she initially told him Kieran Adey, also 19, had carried out the fatal attack while she looked on in horror, but weeks later confessed to her role in the killing.

Mr Strong said: “She had said she was getting away with murder, joking about it. It was on a number of occasions.”

The Northern Echo:

Murder victim: Mark Shaw 

The court was told she had stamped on Mr Shaw while Mr Adey and another man beat him up before he was tied up with phone chargers and carried upstairs.

Mr Strong said Miss Warren said she and Mr Adey returned hours later as Mr Shaw was regaining consciousness.

He said: “She pulled a kitchen knife from the side of the bed. She stabbed Mark with it, just the once, because with him keep regaining consciousness, she said: ‘I’m going to put him out of his misery’.”

The court heard Mr Strong, who had been in love with Miss Warren, went to police on February 23, a couple of weeks after she confided in him following a row between the pair.

Miss Warren, who had been arrested days after the killing and released with no further action, was re-arrested on March 8, charged with murder and remanded into custody.

The Northern Echo:

Murder scene: Police outside Mark's shaw's home on Pine Street

Mr Strong said he received a letter from prison in her handwriting, which, tests reveal, carried low levels of her DNA.

It said: “What goes around, comes around and hits you ten times harder. We all know what you will be in jail for. #nonce.”

Prosecutor Nick Dry told the jury despite the inaccuracy of the allegation Mr Strong was intimidated by the insinuation.

Mr Strong said: “It is disgusting. I took it as a threat.”

Mr Shaw, 29, found dead in his bedroom with over 80 injuries on his head torso and limbs. A post mortem examination has revealed he died from a single stab wound.

Miss Warren, of Hexham, Washington, and Mr Adey, of Queen Street, Grange Villa, both deny murder. Miss Warren faces a further charge of witness intimidation.

The trial continues.