Old Bailey: A prison officer from Crystal Palace has denied strangling an 18-stone man on a night out, on which he planned to dress up as a schoolboy.

Francis Kavanagh, aged 34, of Church Road, admitted brawling with Michael Smith, 58, on a night out with fellow warders from Wandsworth Prison.

He claimed the fight broke out when Mr Smith, who was gay, touched him sexually by some bushes.

But he denied putting a bag over Mr Smith's head and returning to the scene to make sure he was dead.

The court heard Kavanagh, known as Wayne, had planned to go to a school disco club in London's West End dressed as a schoolboy, on December 21 last year.

He was drinking after work in the County Arms Pub, near Wandsworth Prison, when Mr Smith, a retired company manager told a friend that he wanted to "shag" a prison officer.

Kavanagh left to go to a colleague's house to change into shorts for the disco ahead, while Mr Smith left in a "tipsy" state heading for his home, in Clifford Court, Heathfield Road, about 8.30pm.

Two colleagues then claimed they saw Kavanagh running towards the Heathfield Road flats.

Mr Smith's body was found the next morning in a secluded area of the first floor landing.

Kavanagh's girlfriend Ruth Harper claims he confessed to the killing on his return home but he claims: "I don't remember what was said.

"The following morning Ruth wasn't very talkative. She asked me what had happened the night previously.

"I can only remember saying a man had touched me sexually and a fight had occurred. I didn't know at that stage the man was dead."

Kavanagh denied murder at the Old Bailey. The trial continues.

July 10, 2002 11:00