A MURDER trial jury yesterday heard a dramatic 999 call made by a killer telling the police where they could find the body of his estranged partner.

The recording was played on the fourth day of the trial of Graham Gibson, who stabbed to death Christine Henderson at a house in Middlesbrough.

Gibson knifed Mrs Henderson 12 times – a week after she ended their 18-month relationship because of his violent behaviour and stealing to gamble.

Mrs Henderson, 50, left their home in Kent Avenue, Hartlepool, and moved in with her best friend on the Brambles Farm estate, Middlesbrough.

Gibson, 47, bombarded the mother-of-three with phone calls, texts and messages on Facebook in the days after the split, Teesside Crown Court heard.

On July 1, he went to see her where she was staying, and repeatedly stabbed her as she sat at a kitchen table, said Jamie Hill, prosecuting.

Gibson was then seen “happy” and “grinning” in the street before he called the police – at least half-an-hour after leaving Mrs Henderson for dead. In the 20-second recording, he can be heard telling the stunned operator: “I stabbed my girlfriend and she’s dead . . . she’s lied on the kitchen floor.”

Gibson tells the call-taker that he’s going to hand himself in, but it was 13 hours later when he was arrested near the main police station in Middlesbrough.

Earlier, pathologist Mark Egan told the jury that the worst of Mrs Henderson’s injuries was a stab that went through her cheek and out her throat.

He said some of the wounds – mostly to her head, chest and neck – were probably inflicted while the victim was lying on the kitchen floor.

Gambling addict Gibson has admitted killing Mrs Henderson, but denies murder.

He claims he was provoked by his ex-partner and lost control.

After his arrest close to the Middlehaven police station, Gibson said: “I’ve come to hand myself in for that murder”, the court heard.

The trial, which is expected to last another week, will continue today.