A MAN accused of murder told emergency service workers "it was self defence" after they found his partner stabbed to death, a court heard today.

Simon Keogh is standing trial at Teesside Crown Court accused of murdering teacher Lesley Grant on November 24 last year at the home they shared at Whitby Road, Loftus. He denies the charge.

Today Michael Renniman, an ambulance man called to the scene, described how he and a colleague tried to treat Mr Keogh, who had a serious neck wound and other cuts to his body.

He told the jury Mr Keogh, 40, was "very agitated" and would not let them put an oxygen mask on him. He added he would also not allow them to put a drip into his arm and "would not sit still".

Mr Renniman said that while in the ambulance Mr Keogh, whose clothes were "sopping wet" with blood, repeated "it was self defence" up to four times.

He added that while at the house he had placed monitors on the body of Miss Grant to check for signs of life but there was a "nil response".

Earlier this week Jeremy Richardson QC, prosecuting, told the court Miss Grant, who was 43, and Mr Keogh had been partners for four years and lived together at Cemetery Lodge in Loftus.

He said the pair's relationship was "effectively over" when Miss Grant, a teacher at Whinney Banks Junior School in Middlesbrough, was found dead in the kitchen of her home with a knife in her chest.

Mr Richardson 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.

Mr Keogh was found by police officers lying beside Miss Grant with a serious wound to his neck, other injuries and a cut to his hand, a defence wound, Mr Richardson said.

The trial continues.