A TEACHER confessed to colleagues she let her boyfriend suffocate her during sex before she was killed by a bondage-obsessed musician, a court heard.

Fife-born guitarist Graham Coutts, 39, is accused of murdering special needs music teacher Jane Longhurst, 31, with a pair of his wife's tights.

He insists the violinist died accidentally after she allowed him to half strangle her to intensify their sexual pleasure.

Fellow teacher Ruth Sinclaiar, who used to work with Miss Longhurst at Netherhall school in Cambridge, said she always suspected her friend had died in a bedroom accident after hearing the revelations about her sex life.

Miss Sinclair told the court how the young teacher made a giggling confession during a staffroom chat in 1996.

She told the jury Miss Longhurst was on a break between lessons when she started to talk to other members of staff about her then boyfriend, a man called Lincoln.

Miss Sinclair told the jury: "She said that she had been away that weekend to see him, and she began to talk about their relationship and the sexual side of their relationship "She said that the sex involved some kind of stopping breathing. This was in a very busy, very loud staff room and it was something that was said into my ear. It was said to at least two other people as well.

"I don't think she went into detail about how it was done. She was kind of amused and bemused by it. She didn't seem anxious or perturbed in any way.

"She was kind of laughing about it and giggling about it. I got the feeling that she was not unwilling to do this.

"I remember it because it was quite a surprise. It's not something that anyone ever said about before."

Miss Sinclair said she immediately remembered the conversation when she heard on the news that Ms Longhurst's body had been discovered with a ligature around her neck.

She told the court: "I thought back to what she had said and thought somebody might have done that to her - some kind of stopping breathing thing.

"I thought somebody might have done the same thing and could have killed her."

Leven-born Mr Coutts is accused of strangling Miss Longhurst and keeping her corpse for 'sexual gratification' for over a month.

But he has told the court: "There's nothing sexual about a dead body. Nothing. And the smell was getting worse and worse and worse. There's nothing remotely sexual about that."

Mr Coutts met Miss Longhurst through his wife, who is also a teacher. He said he went swimming with Miss Longhurst and then took her back to his flat in Waterloo Street, Brighton, for sex on March 14, 2003.

mr Coutts claimed they began kissing moments after he put the kettle on, then he produced a pair of his girlfriend's tights and asked Miss Longhurst 'if she wanted to try something different'.

He showed the jury how he tied the tights around her neck during sex but claims he blacked out at the moment of orgasm and came round to find Miss Longhurst dead.

Mr Coutts stored the body in his garden shed and a Big Yellow Storage facility in Brighton before eventually setting it alight on Wiggonholt Common, near Pulborough, West Sussex, on April 19.

Ms Longhurst was from Brighton but grew up in Reading, Berkshire. She and her partner played in the All Saints orchestra together in Lewes, east Sussex.

The trial continues.