Stephen Ansbro has been jailed for life for stabbing and slashing Jane Collinson 60 times with a bread knife at the complex where they lived in Barnard Castle, Country Durham in March.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair had clashed previously, and Mrs Collinson had made serval complaints to accommodation management about Ansbro.

In one letter, written to a resident's son, Mrs Collinson warned that the resident was getting "too close" to Ansbro.

A witness later told police that after finding out about the letter, Ansbro said "he would do time for her and he would kill her because she was getting on his nerves", according to prosecutor Mark McKone KC.

The 60-year-old attempted to make the murder look like suicide, by bolting Mrs Collinson's door from the outside.

He also cut his own neck to imply the 59-year-old attacked him.

He must serve a minimum of 18 years before he can be considered for parole, plus a further four years and nine months for sexual offences he committed against a teenager in the 1990s and a child cruelty offence.

Ansbro, who used an electric wheelchair, spent seven hours at Mrs Collinson's flat on the night of the incident.

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He used a 20cm-long knife to inflict 59 slash wounds, stabbing her once and also slapping and punching her. Mrs Collinson nearly lost two fingers defending herself, before bleeding to death.

In a victim statement, her husband Garth Collinson said his life changed for the better when he met his wife in 2014, and he became part of her wider family.

They had found a dream house which they intended to buy and they planned a future together.

Her daughters said she was the heart of their family, and five months on from her death, they "still feel numb".

Peter Moulson KC, defending, said Ansbro, who has 62 previous convictions, including two for robbery, had demonstrated his remorse with his guilty pleas.