The man accused of murdering Jane Longhurst became a father of twins just months after his arrest, a court heard.

Graham Coutts has seen his baby boys just once since being on remand in prison.

He broke down in the witness stand yesterday as he told how the babies were born on October 11 last year.

He said he had seen them only once - during a prison visit from his partner, Lisa Stephens.

Asked if he communicated with Ms Stephens, the babies' mother, he said she had visited a number of times and the couple had spoken on the phone.

Coutts, a 35-year-old guitarist of Waterloo Street, Hove, denies murdering Miss Longhurst, a 31-year-old special needs teacher, of Shaftesbury Road, Brighton.

He said her death was an accident during consensual sex at his flat. Miss Longhurst, he said, agreed to have a pair of tights tied round her throat and she suddenly collapsed dead.

He said he hid the body for five weeks and did not tell the police because he was scared his pregnant partner might miscarry.

Ms Stephens, who had undergone fertility treatment, had been eight-weeks pregnant when Miss Longhurst died on March 14.

Coutts remembered intimate details leading up to Miss Longhurst's death but little afterwards.

He showed the jury how he had tied a pair of tights lightly round her neck.

He said he had indulged in strangulation sex with partners, including Ms Stephens, more than 172 times and nothing had gone wrong before.

John Kelsey-Fry QC, prosecuting, asked why he had not removed the ligature when Miss Longhurst collapsed. Coutts replied: "I don't know."

How did he know she was dead? Coutts said: "I can't answer that."

Mr Kelsey-Fry: "You remember minute details, to the point where she was not moving, but can't tell us what happened next."

Coutts: "That's right."

Mr Kelsey-Fry: "Can you think of a single reason why you would not have removed that ligature?"

Coutts: "It just was not that tight. I don't know how she died. I don't know what happened at that point. I don't know what I was thinking."

Mr Kelsey-Fry asked why Coutts had not called an ambulance: "Is there any reason why you did not try to save this girl's life?"

Coutts: "I don't know if I did or did not. I did not dial 999."

Asked why, he said: "Shock, I don't know. I remember blood, a curtain of blood."

There were occasional exchanges between the two and at one point Coutts turned to Judge Richard Brown and said the prosecutor was being persistent. Mr Kelsey-Fry pressed Coutts on how she died but he repeated he did not know.

Mr Kelsey-Fry said it was clear Miss Longhurst had not been shot and Coutts responded: "There's no reason to be flippant."

Coutts stored the body first in a brick shed at the rear of his flat and then at the Big Yellow self-storage unit in Coomb Road, Brighton.

He visited the body several times but denied it was to satisfy sexual fantasies. However, 35 minutes after one visit Coutts was viewing violent sex scenes on web sites.

Coutts could not remember doing so but records show he spent the best part of an hour watching internet scenarios including a secretary being throttled to death.

He told the court: "It is not something I can explain."

Mr Kelsey-Fry asked: "How could you possibly resort to this material when Jane Longhurst was in your lock-up?"

Coutts said he had been into internet pornography for eight years and it had developed into a habit.

He said he visited the body to check on the smell.

Coutts complained to a work colleague police were not doing enough to find Jane and he was asked: "You wanted to be caught?"

Coutts answered: "I think I did."

He thought the police would have solved Miss Longhurst's disappearance after three days and "this situation would have been over".

Yet, Mr Kelsey-Fry pointed out, Coutts had been an "efficient and effective liar" when he had denied to police in an interview he had any involvement in Miss Longhurst's disappearance.

Coutts said the second Miss Longhurst had died "my life was over" and his actions afterwards were designed to protect his pregnant partner and the babies.

The trial continues.