A KILLER who sent an anonymous letter to police and made calls to Crimestoppers with false information about his evil deed broke down yesterday as he admitted he had killed a Teesside prostitute.

Shaun Tuley, 30, sobbed as he told a jury on the first day of his Teesside Crown Court trial that he did not murder Kellie Mallinson, 20. He offered a plea of guilty to manslaughter.

Franz Muller, prosecuting, said the plea left little doubt Tuley, of Mannion Court, South Bank, Middlesbrough, had killed Miss Mallinson.

Mr Muller said heroin addict Miss Mallinson was found asphyxiated on the morning of September 10 last year by a man walking his dog behind industrial units on the Cannon Park Industrial Estate, in Middlesbrough.

Mr Muller said that on September 9, slightly-built Miss Mallinson had left her home in Lawson Close, North Ormesby, to work on the streets.

She was seen twice on CCTV footage around the town, the second time near Sainsbury's, in the company of a man who the prosecution said was her killer, said Mr Muller.

Following media coverage of the case, police received an anonymous letter in which the writer said he had seen a man - whose description differed from Tuley's - near the area where Miss Mallinson was found. The letter said the man was acting suspiciously. He said the letter turned out to have been written by Tuley, who also called Crimestoppers twice claiming to have details about the killing.

In police interviews, Mr Muller said Tuley had admitted having sex with Miss Mallinson on the night of her death.

Mr Muller said a pathologist had examined the body and said she had been asphyxiated. He added the defendant had injuries on his body, one of them a bite mark on his arm which later forensic tests proved to have been caused by Miss Mallinson biting, or attempting to bite, Tuley.

The trial continues.