A SUSTAINED and brutal attack killed a Winchester mother of one, an inquest heard this morning.

Naomi Bryant was stabbed 15 times with a kitchen knife and then strangled at her Hampshire home in August 2005.

The attacker, Anthony Rice, 48, was on licence from a life sentence when he murdered the 40-year-old.

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Her body was discovered by her former partner and her 14-year-old daughter.

"There was a lot of blood in the house," said Detective Inspector David Crouch, who worked in Hampshire Police's major crime unit at the time.

"It was in the bedroom and bathroom and there was drips of blood leading away from the premises."

Mr Rice was released in November 2004 after being convicted of attempted rape 15 years earlier.

He had met Ms Bryant a week before her death at the Baker's Arms pub in Winchester.

The inquest, at Winchester Crown Court, heard Mr Rice had told police he had decided to kill her when they met on a park bench on the day of her murder.

They had drunk in the Albion pub before returning to Ms Bryant's Harestock home in the early evening.

The inquest is expected to last three weeks.