A POLICE officer yesterday described finding the body of a 19-year-old bride who had been stabbed to death.

PC James White, of Loftus police, told Teesside Crown Court that he had been called to the house in the town's High Row on May 8 and found Claire Butters, nee Cummings, dead in an upstairs bedroom.

In the house, he found a black-handled vegetable knife, and then found Claire covered in blood. She was dressed in pyjamas in her bed.

He told the court she was cold and had no pulse.

Her husband, Stephen Butters, 41, is accused of murdering his bride of just four days while she slept at the home they shared.

The court had heard previously that the couple had been married in a secret ceremony as her family did not approve of the relationship.

Mr Butters denies murdering his wife on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but he admits unlawfully killing her.

Franz Muller QC, prosecuting, previously told the court that Butters had been married twice before, both times to brides in their late teens.

He also had seven children from three past relationships.

He said Butters was an insomniac who needed sleeping tablets, which he had been prescribed. But he had not taken the pills for the three days before his wife's death and, as a result, had not slept during that time.

After the stabbing, said Mr Muller, Butters made three unsuccessful attempts to kill himself by hanging, electrocution, and later by trying to throw himself off Hummersea Cliffs near the couple's home.

Pathologist Mark Egan told the court that Claire had been stabbed six times, with two of the stabs penetrating her heart. He said her wounds would have required "moderate force".

Dr Richard Rigby, Butters' GP, said that the defendant had visited the surgery 50 times in two years, mostly complaining of being unable to sleep and occasionally of depression.

The trial continues.