A TEENAGER who stabbed a shop worker to death in what appeared to be a late-night attempted robbery was carrying a bag of weapons, a jury at his murder trial was told.

Ethan Mountain, 19, attacked Joan Hoggett, 62, without any warning while she was working at the One Stop shop in Fulwell, Sunderland, just after 10.30pm on September 5.

The Northern Echo:

Police officers search near the scene on Sea Road, Sunderland where a 62-year-old woman was stabbed. Police have arrested a teenager on suspicion of her murder. Picture: PA

He has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but the jury at Newcastle Crown Court has been told the prosecution does not accept that plea and say he is guilty of murder.

David Brooke QC, prosecuting, said CCTV footage showed Mountain enter the shop wearing a mask and carrying a holdall, then produce a knife and repeatedly stab the employee before leaving just a minute later.

A colleague heard screaming and efforts were made to save her but she had suffered 29 injuries, including 19 deep stab wounds and died in hospital.

Mountain had left the holdall at the scene and it contained a hammer, sheathed samurai sword, machetes and three knives.

The prosecution accepted that Mountain, who had been "sectioned" aged 17 the year before, suffered paranoid schizophrenia, but they say he had shown self-control and rational behaviour earlier in the day.

Mr Brooke said: "When one looks at what actually happened, this appears to be an attempted robbery.

"To go into a shop wearing a mask and with a knife out can really mean little else.

"He told his friend as much.

"He said to him 'she did not comply' and it seems he ended by stabbing her to death."

Four hours after the attack, Mountain's friend rang 999 to tell them where the killer was, and he was arrested.

By then Mountain had thrown away the knife and dumped his mobile phone in a pond, the jury heard.

Mountain had turned up at his friend's home at 2am and said he wanted to hand himself in.

Mr Brooke said: "Mountain said he thought he had killed someone having stabbed them. He was seeing people and 'hearing stuff'.

"Mountain said to his friend that he was stood outside the shop and saw two men inside.

"He went inside to find them but they weren't there.

"He went to the 'woman' and she did not 'comply'.

"He stabbed her. The voices in his head told him to do it.

"He spoke about having 'lost control'.

"His friend said that Mountain sounded like he regretted everything."

After the attack, he told his friend he had used a knife on himself and he was covered in blood.

Mountain, of Heaton Gardens, East Boldon, South Tyneside, had been "sectioned" when he was 17, the court was told, as he was mentally ill.

Mr Brooke said Mountain told others at the time he had violent, intrusive thoughts about harming others with an axe, hammer and knife.

"At that time in 2017 he was saying that he believed that his neighbours were gaining access to his thoughts through his mobile phone," Mr Brooke said.

He was discharged in August 2017 and after the killing he was to tell a psychiatrist he was not actually better and had hidden his symptoms to be freed.

Psychiatrists for the defence and prosecution were instructed and both diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.

Mr Brooke said: "It's not enough simply to be mentally ill.

"Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia in itself does not excuse a defendant's conduct."