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

But 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. He offered a plea of guilty to manslaughter.

Franz Muller, prosecuting, said this left little doubt that Tuley, of Mannion Court in South Bank, Middlesbrough, had killed the 20-year-old vice girl. He said the issue the jury had to decide was whether it was murder or manslaughter.

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

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

She was seen twice on CCTV footage in the company of a man who the prosecution said was her killer, he said.

Police received an anonymous letter in which the writer said he had seen a man - whose description differed from Tuley's - acting suspiciously near the area where Miss Mallinson was found.

He said the letter turned out to have been written by Tuley, who also called Crimestoppers twice with information.

In police interviews, Mr Muller said, Tuley admitted having sex with Miss Mallinson on the night she died.

The trial continues.