A KILLER has admitted murdering a transgender woman in Droitwich after pleading guilty on the day his trial was due to begin.

Martin Saberi, 55, entered his guilty plea at Worcester Crown Court on Monday, more than two years after he killed Amy Griffiths in 2019.

The trial had been scheduled to go ahead in full, with a jury, but Saberi changed his plea to guilty before the trial could start.

He will be sentenced on March 11, also at Worcester Crown Court.

The trial had looked uncertain to get underway as there was a delay of more than four hours.

It had been scheduled to begin at 10am, but continued technical errors meant no progress was made until around 2.20pm.

There had been discussions about adjourning the start of the trial until Tuesday due to a problem establishing a video link to the courtroom.

Eventually a workaround was found, and Saberi's guilty plea meant the jury was no longer needed.

Ms Griffiths was murdered between January 11 and January 14, 2019.

Later that month, Saberi, then 53, was charged with her murder.

He initially appeared in court later that year, where he denied the charge.

The case was then delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Griffiths was described as a "hero" in the local LGBT+ community by friends.

Her body was found in Chalverton Court, on January 14, 2019, with police saying she had suffered head and throat injuries.

At the time, friends paid tribute to Ms Griffiths, saying she was a "lovely person with a good sense of humour".