Schoolgirl Natalie Ruddick had received a chilling phone call weeks before she was stabbed to death by her big sister's boyfriend, a court heard yesterday.

Terrified Natalie, 12, rang sister Claire, 17, to tell her about the sinister threats from a mystery man.

Less than a month later she was stabbed and slashed 25 times by Claire's boyfriend Ronald Pattinson, 18, a jury was told.

Pattinson chased her into her bedroom and launched the murderous attack because she caught him stealing £30 from the family home on the New Mills estate, Newcastle, it is alleged.

Yesterday Claire described how Natalie called her on her mobile phone begging her to come home after the phone call in February this year.

Through recorded police interview Claire told Newcastle Crown Court:

"She rang me one day and said: "Claire this man is ringing me saying he knows I am in the house on my own and he is going to come and get me."

"She begged me to come home from school and I said I would get there after my next lesson."

The jury heard how Claire was not aware of any more threatening calls and was unsure if Natalie received another.

She and sister Emma returned home from school that afternoon to find Natalie, who had stayed at home through illness, had been killed.

Claire tried to give her the kiss of life, as she had learnt at school, before taking instructions from paramedics on her mobile phone."

She added: "I started to feel faint but I thought "no, I have to do it, I have to stay for my sister."

Pattinson, 18, of Belsay Place, Arthur's Hill, Newcastle denies murder and the trial continues.