A KILLER'S 999 call was ignored by police for an hour-and-a-half because an emergency operator mistakenly dismissed him as a drunken crank, a jury was told.

Teesside Crown Court was told on Monday that schoolteacher Lesley Grant was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, who then tried to kill himself. Miss Grant, 43, from Loftus died in November last year.

Jeremy Richardson, prosecuting, said Miss Grant, who worked at Whinney Banks Junior School, Middlesbrough, had been killed by her partner of four years Simon Keogh, 40. Mr Keogh denies murder.

Mr Richardson said that after the stabbing, the unemployed logistics officer mutilated himself before turning a gas canister on in the home they had shared since 1998 at Cemetery Lodge in Whitby Road, Loftus. He said an emergency 999 call had been made to the police at 7.41pm and a man, who the prosecutor claimed was Mr Keogh, said to the police operator: "She's killed me" and "I'm cut up deep", but very little else. The call was given 'very low priority' and officers did not arrive at the scene until about an hour-and-a-half later. The court was told they found Miss Grant with a knife sticking in her chest and Mr Keogh, who had serious injuries, covered in blood.

PC James White told the jury that he had accompanied Mr Keogh to hospital and while in the ambulance he had repeatedly said: "She was trying to kill me." An ambulanceman has also said Mr Keogh repeated it was self-defence.

The trial continues