A soldier accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend used his technical expertise to stalk her, a court heard.

Lance Corporal Harry Dhillon, 26, denies murdering Alice Ruggles in her flat in Gateshead in October.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how he used "emotional blackmail" to manipulate her into getting back with him after they broke up.

He sent her photos of himself in tears and messaged her mother on Facebook begging for her help in reconciling them.

Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said there was a more "sinister" element to the blackmail as he threatened to release sexual photographs of his ex.

Police found a folder on his computer titled Tramp and in it were images of Ms Ruggles in "sexually compromising positions" which Dhillon threatened to share on social media, the court heard.

He also threatened to go to the police with an allegation she had hit him - something she did when she found out he had been messaging a woman on Tinder, jurors were told.

Mr Wright said: "His stalking escalated into his hacking into and controlling her social media accounts in such a way he was able to monitor what she was doing."

The 2 Scots Signaller, who hoped to join the SAS in reconnaissance, set up a fake email address in her name and hacked into her Facebook account so he could control it.

She thought he could read her Whatsapp messages too.

When she began contacting another soldier based in Germany with the hope of a relationship, Dhillon contacted him and claimed she was "playing" the pair of them, Mr Wright said.

After the alleged murder, Dhillon took her phone and dumped it, the jury was told.

On the evening of the discovery of his alleged victim's body, he was arrested at his barracks having tried to scale a perimeter fence, the court heard.

He was allowed a toilet break before police arrived and tried to wash blood away. But traces were found on his Help for Heroes wristband and on the steering wheel of his car, the court was told.

Mr Wright said Dhillon has put forward four different accounts as to what happened.

He expected the defendant will tell the jury he was trying to stop Ms Ruggles from killing herself and he fled when she stabbed herself because he had a phobia of blood.

This stemmed from his service in Afghanistan when he saw the aftermath of a helicopter crash.

Mr Wright said although Dhillon did attend the site of a helicopter crash, it was two days after the event - he did not know any of the casualties and the wreckage was covered by a tarpaulin.