“I’m just happy to tell you the truth,” Peter Morgan replied when asked why he had not requested a solicitor in his first interview with police after being arrested on 13th January.

Morgan denies murdering 25-year-old Georgina Symonds, whose body was found in a remote Usk workshop at the beginning of this year.

His trial began at Newport Crown Court on Monday (28th November) and is expected to last several weeks.

The first interview after his arrest was one of two shown to the jury today (1st December) on the fourth day of the trial. Earlier today the jury viewed footage from a police officer’s body camera which showed Morgan being interviewed the night Ms Symonds was reported missing.

Morgan’s arrest came after he told police earlier that day: “I just can’t take it, I need to tell you I strangled her and took her to Beach Hill Farm, I love her so much;” a statement he confirmed in the later interview.

He later explained Ms Symonds had blamed the death of her former partner on him, and since his death “the longer it went on the more she blamed me.”

He added that Ms Symonds apparently held him responsible for a social services check on her.

“I wanted her to stop blaming me,” he said.

The court heard he told the police that when planning to see her the next day he thought: “If I can’t sort it out, I will kill her, I don’t know why I thought that, I honestly don’t know why.”

Morgan later told officers that when the pair met, Ms Symonds blamed him again before he allegedly strangled her.

He said: “I told her we need to sort out where we’re going. She started blaming me again and saying it was my fault.

“When I did it I didn’t feel any remorse.

“The worrying thing was I didn’t feel any guilt at the time. I actually managed to sleep last night, in the police cell. I hadn’t been able to sleep all week.

“I love her, I wasn’t feeling hatred, I just needed her to stop blaming me, it wasn’t my fault.”

The jury also heard the testimony of PC Carl Green, one of the officers who discovered the body of Ms Symonds at the Usk property. The court was shown footage of the officers cutting opening the plastic wrapping and confirming a was body located inside.

The trial continues.