STUART Hazell will be sentenced tomorrow after admitting the murder of Tia Sharp.
In dramatic scenes at The Old Bailey this morning(Monday) Hazell, 37, changed his plea to guilty, having originally denied killing the 12-year-old.
The prosecution and defence outlined their cases to the judge this afternoon but proceedings were brought to a halt at around 3.15pm.
Hazell is expected to be sentenced tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and his defence team has admitted he expects to spend a long time behind bars.
The trial was due to enter its fifth day, with the court having previously heard that Hazell - the former partner of Tia's grandmother - had a sexual attraction to Tia.
He also took a photograph of the girl's dead body, for his own sick gratification.
Tia's body was found in the loft of a home in The Lindens, New Addington, which her grandmother Christine Bicknell shared with Hazell.
Police found the body on August 10 last year - a week after the schoolgirl was first reported missing.
However, the trial heard the police had searched the loft on three previous occasions, but failed to spot the body.
Earlier in the trial, which began last Tuesday, CCTV footage was shown to the jury, of Hazell and Tia together on a bus and shopping in a Forestdale supermarket, hours before he allegedly killed her.
The jury was also told how Hazell tried to pin the blame for Tia's death onto Somalian neighbours and complained of his treatment in the media, claiming he was being made to look like "Jack the Ripper".
