Redcar man pleads guilty to double murder
34-year-old Alan Bennett has admitted to stabbing 46-year-old Lynne Freeman and 30-year-old Jodie Betteridge to death at their homes in Redcar.
A Redcar man has pleaded guilty to murdering two women in the town, just minutes after one another.
34-year-old Alan Bennett appeared at Teesside Crown Court today where he admitted killing 46-year-old Lynne Freeman and 30-year-old Jodie Betteridge at their homes in March.
Bennett told officers "I have done what had to be done".
The three children Jodie had with Alan Bennett were present at the time of the fatal attack. Their mother was stabbed 132 times.
The defendant called the police himself at 8:45pm on 23rd March, after delivering fatal stab wounds to his partner Lynne Freeman at her home on Mapleton Crescent, Redcar.
Police arrived and found the 46-year-old's body in the living room.
She had been stabbed a number of times in her upper torso and neck..
Seven minutes after receiving the first call from Bennett, police were called to Byland Close in Redcar, less than a mile away, where it was reported a woman was being violently assaulted.
Police found 30-year-old Bennett's ex-partner Jodie Betterdidge with multiple stab wounds to her legs, arms, neck, face and torso.
Their three young children, aged 4, 6 and 9-years-old witnessed the fatal attack on their mother.
Bennett was detained at the scene on suspicion of both murders and was charged on Saturday 26th March.
Earlier on the day of the murders, the defendant and Lynne Freeman had been drinking in Redcar town centre, where Bennett had been involved in a couple of altercations throughout the day.
They caught a bus back to the home of Lynne Freeman and witnesses say the pair had a domestic argument on the way home, with Bennett raising his voice a number of times.
We'll be bringing you the latest details from Teesside Crown Court through the day as we get it, follow us @TFMRadioNews.