A MAN accused of murdering the girlfriend he loved "more than anything else in the world" met her through a dating agency, a court heard yesterday.

Simon Keogh denies the murder of 43-year-old Lesley Grant, a teacher at Whinney Banks Junior School, in Middlesbrough.

Teesside Crown Court previously heard Miss Grant was found dead in the kitchen of the home they shared in Whitby Road, Loftus, in November last year.

She had been stabbed and had a knife sticking from her chest. Mr Keogh, 40, was beside her, also with serious injuries.

Yesterday, the taped interviews Mr Keogh gave to police revealed the couple met through the Dateline dating agency, and not "by chance" as they had told friends.

In the interviews, played in court, Mr Keogh said he did not remember much about the evening.

He said: "The very, very last thing I remember is getting down on the floor with her and lying with my arms around her, crying."

He said he remembered being stabbed in the stomach by Miss Grant, grabbing the knife from her and stabbing her once. Then it became blank, he said.

Asked if he loved his partner, he answered: "Very, very much. I loved her more than anything else in the world."

Earlier this week Jeremy Richardson QC, prosecuting, said it was the Crown's case that Mr Keogh had killed Miss Grant, and then possibly tried to commit suicide, mutilating himself and turning on the gas in the house.

The trial continues.