Old Bailey: A drunk Wandsworth Prison officer kicked a gay man's head "like a football" before strangling him to death, the Old Bailey heard last week.

Wayne Kavanagh, 28, killed Keith Smith, 58, on the evening of December 21 last year, hours after his girlfriend told him their relationship was over.

Kavanagh, of Church Road, Upper Norwood, allegedly confessed to his girlfriend Ruth Harper later that evening, claiming that Mr Smith had provoked him by "touching" him.

He admits manslaughter but denies murder.

Mr Smith's battered and bloody 6ft, 18-stone body was found the next morning on the first floor landing

of a nearby block of flats at Heathfield Court, Heathfield Road, Wandsworth.

Sir Allan Green QC, opening the prosecution at the start of the two-week trial, described how a drunk Kavanagh told his girlfriend he had killed Mr Smith.

Sir Allan said: "He (Kavanagh) said 'you don't even know what I've done. A man touched me by some bushes. I used his head like a football and stamped on his neck and put my hands round his neck. I even went back to check whether he was dead by the stairwell'."

He added: "The jury has to ask itself whether an ordinary, sober man might have been provoked by whatever Mr Smith did, that he might have reacted in the same way and killed the man."

The court heard how both men had been drinking heavily, but separately, at the County Arms in Alma Terrace on December 21.

Mr Smith, a retired warehouse manager, had been shopping in Wimbledon Village before drinking two bottles of red wine and some of a third with friends. He went home to his flat in Clifford Court, Heathfield Road, between 8.15pm and 8.30pm, which took him past Heathfield Court flats.

Kavanagh had been drinking in the County Arms from late afternoon. He was described as very drunk and allegedly told two colleagues he had taken cocaine.

The court heard he left the pub around the same time as Mr Smith, before returning briefly because he had forgotten his jacket. Mr Smith was never seen alive again.

Kavanagh returned to the County Arms to carry on drinking after the alleged murder, before a minicab took him home at 10.50pm.

The driver later found Mr Smith's cheque book in a carrier bag left in the cab. His bus pass holder containing his credit cards and Kavanagh's blood-splattered white shirt were found in bins outside Kavanagh's home.

The trial continues.

July 8, 2002 16:30