A 16-year-old girl charged with murdering a 78-year-old man in Damascus, N.B., told police she committed the crime because she was tired of being fondled by him.

The jury also heard that the girl, who cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, had filed a complaint against Frank Tonge two years before, alleging sexual touching.

It was unclear in the Saint John courtroom Wednesday what the fallout from that complaint was.

Tonge was found laying in a pool of blood in his home, just outside Saint John, on June 5. He had been stabbed in the neck.

The girl, who was 15 at the time, told police she didn't intend to kill Tonge when she went to his house with a large kitchen knife. She nonetheless described stabbing him from behind as they walked toward the bedroom in his house.

She told police her relationship with Tonge dated back to when she was 13 years old.

She said she is dependant on marijuana and Tonge would give her the drug in exchange for kissing, hugging and fondling her.

This had been going on for a couple of years and she was "fed up," she said.

Pathologist Mohammad Hossain told the court Tonge would have lost consciousness within a minute or less. The stab wound in his neck severed a major artery supplying blood to the brain, he said.

The trial is scheduled to last until the middle of next week.