A brother stabbed his sister 10 times in "a brutal and savage attack" at her home in Horwich a court heard today.

Mark Kitchen, aged 37, denies murdering mother of two Sarah Melia at Catherine Street West, on January 14.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Kitchen, of Richard Gwyn Close, Westhoughton, carried a knife to the scene in a brown paper envelope which he had been sent by the TV licensing company just days earlier, for not paying his licence.

Gary Burrell, QC, prosecuting, told the court that Ms Melia was stabbed six times in the back, cutting through her right lung and into her diaphragm and liver. There were also four superficial stab wounds on the front of her chest.

The court heard that Ms Melia may have tried to escape her attacker by going upstairs and could have been pulled back down by her hair.

Police discovered clumps of her hair on the stairs next to her body, along with the envelope.

Mr Burrell said: "Mercifully death would have come fairly rapidly from the wounds, but this was a forceable and sustained attack which cut through bones as well as tissue, it was a particularly brutal and savage attack."

A man wearing a distinctive red jacket and a hat was captured on CCTV in the Horwich area around the time of her death, which the prosecution say was between 10.20am and 10.30am.

The prosecution said that this man is Kitchen, and a number of witnesses identified him.

The trial continues.