TWO women close to Torbjorn Kettlewell and Julie Wass are among the latest to give evidence at their murder trial.

A former friend and colleague of healthcare assistant Wass told a jury about a series of text messages and phone calls she got after the brutal stabbing of Kelly Franklin.

Wass and her lover Kettlewell - also known as Ian - are alleged to have hatched a plot to kill his former partner and mother to his three children, Ms Franklin, 29.

Another of sex-mad Kettlewell's lovers, Corrine Hunter - at whose home he was found hours after the knife attack - also gave evidence.

Hospital workmate Deborah Bewick told the Teesside Crown Court jury how she and Wass, 48, were "good friends".

In the early hours of the morning after Ms Franklin's death on August 3, Mrs Bewick first received a text.

She told the jury of eight women and four men: "It said that she would not be in work on the Monday because Ian had killed Kelly and she had seen him do it."

The court heard that her reply at around 6am was: "F***, Julie, what the f***, the rotten bastard."

About four hours later, having not had a response to several texts, Mrs Bewick got a phone call from Wass, telling her police had confiscated her phone and took other belongings, including her car.

At first Wass claimed she drove off from the scene in Oxford Road, but in a later conversation she said she stopped to vomit and Kettlewell, 30, jumped in.

"He told her to drive, and she said she was just scared so she did," added Mrs Bewick.

"She said she thought he had been on drugs, he was scary. He looked like he had taken something."

Ms Franklin, 29, was stabbed more than 30 times in what prosecutors claim was a brutal and planned attack.

After splitting with his ex-partner, Kettlewell continued to hope to get her and the older woman together in a threesome, prosecutor Jamie Hill, QC, told the jury during his opening speech.

Kettlewell, who changed his name from Ian because he was fascinated with a video game character called Torbjorn, lost custody of their children after he accidentally shot one of them in the face with a high-powered air rifle.

The court heard he was angry with his ex-partner and also concerned she was moving on with her life.

At around 9pm on August 3, he searched for her and attacked Ms Franklin in the street with a kitchen knife he took from his flat.

Terrified members of the public witnessed the stabbing, in which she suffered catastrophic injuries.

Wass had driven him there and then sped him away from the scene, taking him to woods in Trimdon, County Durham, where he could hide and destroy his phone.

One witness said she had been revving the engine before she drove off, another heard a horn and a third heard him shout "get me out of here".

Kettlewell and Ms Franklin had dated since they were teenagers and their families became concerned about his behaviour towards his partner and their three children, the court heard.

Social services got involved, Mr Hill said, and there were "particular concerns about Mr Kettlewell's coercive and psychologically abusive behaviour towards Kelly".

He would try to blame everyone but himself, Mr Hill said.

"The whole picture is of someone who is utterly self-centred and indeed narcissistic," he said.

"He spent his life surrounded by expensive computer equipment, drinking, gaming, and perhaps more concerningly trying to draw Kelly into his sexual fantasies involving other women."

The prosecution also said he was fascinated by knives and the Army, although he had never served.

Ms Franklin "waited on him hand and foot" and although she loved her children, at times she was so busy doing his bidding she could not care for them properly, the court heard.

They were taken into care when he accidentally shot one of them and Ms Franklin tried to cover for him, Mr Hill said.

The couple split in 2017 and she was helped by a domestic abuse charity and took parenting classes to win them back.

It was then that Kettlewell bombarded her with Facebook messages, Mr Hill said, threatening her and obsessing that she had a new partner.

Mr Hill said: "This obviously did not prevent him from having other relationships himself, including one with his co-accused Julie Wass."

He said Kettlewell was obsessed with sex and was determined to get Mrs Wass, who has four daughters, and his ex-partner together.

Mr Hill said: "He was hoping to draw her into his sexual fantasies and involve her with Kelly as well."

He said Wass would spend a long periods at his flat, would drive him around, go shopping for him and was "generally available at his beck and call".

He added: "It is also apparent that Julie Wass immersed herself in the relationship with Mr Kettlewell and Kelly Franklin, not just by sleeping with him, she seems to have been completely in his thrall."

Kettlewell, of Oval Grange, and Wass, of Kipling Road, both Hartlepool, each deny a charge of murder. The hospital worker has admitted assisting an offender.

Kettlewell's other lover, Corrine Hunter, also gave evidence, but he was not in court to see it - only his co-accused and a packed public gallery.

The judge, Mr Justice Jacobs, told the jury that Kettlewell "expressed a preference not to attend the trial today".

Speaking over a live television link, Ms Hunter, wept as she recalled how Kettlewell told in in a phone call: "I've hurt Kelly."

The trial continues.