A man accused of murdering a woman he was having an affair with claims she killed her pet dog by drowning it, a court has heard.

Mark Brown, 41, is charged with the murders of Leah Ware, 33, and Alexandra Morgan, 34, six months apart in 2021.

The trial at Hove Crown Court focused on Thursday on Brown’s relationship with Ms Ware, with who he had an “on again, off again” relationship from 2018 until May 2021, the jury was told.

In the months before her death, Brown, of Squirrel Close, St Leonards, told the court he was considering leaving his partner to be with Ms Ware permanently but said he hesitated to do this because of Ms Ware’s “usage of crack cocaine and heroin”.

Brown said he noticed Lady, Ms Ware’s Pomeranian dog, had gone missing on either April 4 or 5. When he asked where she was, Ms Ware said “she had probably run off into the woods or gone after a rabbit”.

He found Ms Ware’s other dog, Duke, at Little Bridge Farm and fed him, before deciding to take him for a walk around the farm. While on the walk, he found something floating in the lake.

Brown said: “There were cut down tree branches in the water and what looked like Lady was on top of the branches floating in the lake.

“I got a rake to try and pull Lady out of the water and she came up with a chain around her neck and a 12kg weight tied to it.

“Duke was all over it so I took him back inside then went back to see if I could find Leah.

“I found her and I said ‘you’re f****** sick, you’ve lost it, I can’t cope with this s**t when you’re like this’, then I got in the car and drove off. Leah didn’t say anything or really react.”

Ms Ware’s friends and family say she was a devoted animal lover and would never have allowed any harm to come to her pets.

Brown denies both charges of murder.

The trial continues.