A bachelor died after he visited a gay cruising area because his killer thought he was a paedophile, a court heard.

Bruce Walker, from Sunderland, was stabbed three times in the back after he left a gay haunt, known as The Gardens, at Newcastle's Quayside.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Lee Bright, 26, attacked the 47-year-old minutes before launching a similar attack on another man.

Prosecutor John Milford QC told the court how just a few weeks before the attack Bright had referred to Mr Walker as a "dirty paedophile".

Mr Milford said: "Indeed he was no such thing, and the general view is that he was a kind and utterly inoffensive man."

On December 23, 1999, he visited the area and spoke to a man named Andrew McGuiness at an area known as "the long stairs" at just before 9.30pm. It was the last time he was seen alive.

He was found dead at the top of the stairs by passers-by just after 10pm. He had been stabbed three times, one puncturing his aorta - the body's main artery - and another his right lung. He suffered massive internal bleeding.

Clive Ryott, 32, had also been to The Garden and was attacked near some bushes. He managed to break free from the attacker but was left with four stab wounds and the attacker made off with his jacket.

Bright, of Woodland Crescent, Benwell, Newcastle, denies murder, wounding with intent and robbery.

The trial continues.