A MAN knifed his partner at least 30 times until she was dead and killed their baby daughter by stabbing her through the head, a court heard.

Anthony Marsh, 22, used a kitchen knife to carry out the "sustained and fearsome" attack on Stephanie Bellinger, the mother of his two children, and ten-month-old Lili.

He left their bodies on the bed at their home in Myrtle Avenue, Totton, where they were found by Stephanie's mother and sister around 30 hours later.

The killings had been carried out around midnight on February 25 before Marsh went on the run, jurors were told.

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The couple's two-year-old son was also in the house at the time but was unharmed.

Stephanie's mother, Elizabeth, and sister, Ruth, discovered the bodies after breaking into the house on the morning of February 27. They had become concerned when they could not contact Stephanie.

The knife was still in Stephanie's body. It had been plunged into her mouth and out above her ear.

Jurors heard that Marsh had left a bloody handprint on the wall of the bedroom.

Winchester Crown Court was told Marsh had a history of drug abuse including crack cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, cannabis, amphetamine and heroin but became clean when he met Stephanie, 24, in 2006.

Marsh, dressed in a white round-neck shirt and navy blue suit, held his head in his hands as prosecutor Christopher Parker QC made his opening speech to the jury.

As the graphic details of how the bodies were discovered were revealed he slumped forward with his head on a bench in the dock.

Proceeding