AN Ellesmere Port man has today admitted the "gruesome" murder of 29-year-old Ellia Arathoon whose charred remains were found in a secluded wood.

Craig Proctor had been due to face trial this morning but at the last minute he sensationally changed his plea to guilty.

The case has been adjourned until tomorrow and 40-year-old Proctor, of Shephard Close, has been further remanded in custody.

Proctor, who was wearing a grey prison tracksuit, pleaded guilty to murdering Miss Arathoon on or around October 29 last year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he pleaded guilty on the basis that he denied there was "any sexual motivation behind the offence.

"There was sexual activity between him and the deceased that was consensual at all times."

But Richard Pratt, QC, prosecuting said that it was the Crown's case "any sexual activity between the defendant and the deceased was non-consensual."

Mr Pratt said that while prosecution said the sex had been non-consensual that was not the same thing as saying the purpose of the murder was sexual.

He told the court, crowded with the victim's friends and relatives, that the murder was "particularly gruesome.

"It involved him not only killing Ellia Arathoon in his house almost inevitably by the use of a heavy glass object rending her unconscious but then putting her body in a suitcase, carrying that suitcase first of along a highway to a canal towpath and then off the towpath to a secluded wooded area where he set the suitcase on fire and there the body of Ellia Arathoon remained for some hours."

He said the fire, believed to have lit about 4am on October 30, lasted about six hours and he returned to Butterfly Woods and moved the "heavily charred body of Ellia" to a more secluded spot near the M53 where he sought to hide it with foliage and a piece of old carpet.

He pointed out that Proctor's lies led to two other men coming under suspicion before being eliminated.

The court heard that Proctor has previous convictions involving domestic violence which were an aggravating feature given this case involved a violent attack on a woman.