A PLUMSTEAD woman who performed a topless dance-of-death after her boyfriend throttled a care worker has walked free from the Old Bailey.

Corinna Young, of Herbert Road, was given 40 hours of community service and two years probation after being convicted of perverting the course of justice, last Friday (December 14).

Catherine Mukisa's body, wrapped in a light green blanket, was found washed up on the bank of the Thames opposite the Tate Gallery.

The mother-of-nine had rented a room with killers Gary Richardson, aged 43, and Young's boyfriend Kevin Phillipson, aged 23, in Achilles Street, New Cross, just days before she died.

Twenty-year-old Young considered the 53-year-old to be a love rival, and after the two men throttled Miss Mukisa, performed a topless can-can wearing the dead woman's knickers.

She then drove the pair to Lambeth Bridge where the body was thrown into the icy water.

Phillipson and Richardson were found guilty of murder and jailed for life, with five years concurrent for the callous disposal of the body, last month.

Ordering her to perform community service and putting her on probation, Common Serjeant of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, said he would endeavour to both punish and help her.

Judge Beaumont said: "You did a wicked thing for which you have to be punished.

"What saved you from prison is the fact that you have spent some time there already, your good character and the fact that you were absolved from responsibility for Miss Mukisa's death.

"You made the acquaintance of two extremely evil men and it seemed the public would be better served by dispatching you far from London and its influences and you will get help from your grandparents in Cumbria."

December 18, 2001 17:17