A middle-aged man was “calm” when he told neighbours he had stabbed his younger girlfriend to death, a court has heard.

Jason Farrell, 49, is accused of murdering 22-year-old Sammy-Lee Lodwig at his flat before confessing to police he had “sliced her up” with a knife after a row.

On Wednesday, a neighbour told Swansea Crown Court how Farrell appeared “calm” when he turned up at his flat covered in blood on April 23, saying: “I killed her.”

Jamie Myles, who lived in a flat near Farrell’s, said in a statement read out in court: “As I looked at him I began to register he was covered in blood.

Sammy-Lee Lodwig death
Sammy-Lee Lodwig (South Wales Police)

“I can’t get over his face, how calm he was. It was spooky.”

A friend of Mr Myles, Hassan Naddi, went with Farrell to his flat in Carlton Terrace in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea, where he saw the body of Ms Lodwig covered in blood on a bed.

Forensic scientist Claire Morse said tests on two makeshift belts found at the property were consistent with being placed in or around Ms Lodwig’s mouth while she was being attacked.

Ms Morse told the court the distribution of Ms Lodwig’s blood and DNA evidence in Farrell’s bedroom and on his clothing were compatible with the way he later allegedly confessed to murdering her.

The court heard on Tuesday that while in custody, Farrell wrote a letter confessing to the killing.

Prosecutor Michael Jones told the jury: “That letter confessed to murder of Sammy-Lee. He’d actually used the word ‘murdered’. We say it’s a chilling document and one you will be able to see and read for yourself.”

The prosecutor said Farrell was also accused of a “brutal attack” on Christopher Maher, the new boyfriend of Ms Lodwig’s mother, just days before the alleged murder.

Farrell had split from Sarah Lodwig in 2010 after receiving a 13-year sentence for stabbing another man.

He denies murder, wounding with intent, and unlawful wounding.

But the jury were told he had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, an alternative charge for the killing of Ms Lodwig.

The trial continues.