A MAN snapped and strangled his lover when she compared him to his father - a convicted child killer - a jury heard at Manchester Crown Court.

Stuart Thorpe said he regarded Rhonda Melling's baby as his own son and grabbed her round the neck because she implied he might hurt the child.

"But I didn't intend her any serious harm, all I wanted was for her to shut up," added Thorpe.

"I realised I had killed her because she wasn't shouting any more. I had strangled her with my hands."

Thorpe claimed he then put a lace from one of Miss Melling's trainers round her neck and pulled it tight. "I have no explanation for doing that," he said.

He was giving evidence at the trial in which he denied murdering Miss Melling at the house they shared in Abbey Lane, Westleigh, Leigh. He admitted her manslaughter.

In evidence, Thorpe told the jury he knew Miss Melling was pregnant by another man when he first met her. But they started living together and, after she gave birth to Joshua, he looked on him as his own son.

On the night of her death she had been out with friends and spent part of the evening with the boy's real father before going home alone.

Thorpe said the next morning he and Miss Melling had sex then went to sleep again. But the next he remembered was being woken up and she started abusing him and ordering him to leave.

"She told me I was unfit to look after Joshua or be anywhere near him. Then she made a reference to me being like my father and that made me angry and upset. I don't talk about my father because he has been convicted of the manslaughter of a child and it was upsetting to be compared to him."

Thorpe added: "Her words made me angry and I snatched at her and grabbed hold of her round the neck and pushed her back on the bed. I then realised I had killed her."

He claimed he tried to give her the kiss of life before putting the lace round her throat "to make it look like something else, but I can't be sure." He then stripped off her nightie and left her body in the bath.

Thorpe told the jury he first planned to hang himself but then went out and bought £70 worth of heroin and injected himself with the drug after putting Miss Melling's body back in bed.

"When I put my hands round her neck I didn't intend to do anything. I did it because of the reference to my father and her implying I would hurt Joshua."?

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