A CHEF accused of killing his ex-wife was a ‘selfish drug-user’, the Old Bailey heard today.

Adam Mann, aged 29, of Springfield Road, Welling, denies killing Lisa Beverley at her home in Coupland Place, Plumstead, last September.

He claims his ex-wife was already dead when he went to her home to commit a burglary so that she could claim the insurance money.

In his closing speech today, prosecution barrister Jeremy Donne told jurors: “He was a man who happily and skillfully lied to the Child Support Agency about his circumstances.

“A man who has told you he was prepared to take part in a dishonest enterprise.

“He was a selfish drug user and was still using drugs at the time of Lisa’s murder and a man who admitted being violent to Lisa in the past.”

Jurors have heard that when Mann went to the house he had second thoughts about going through with the burglary.

But Mr Donne said: “We say that it’s pretty unlikely compared to his attitude when he gets inside the house.

“He goes into the sitting room and finds a body. He checks for a pulse in his inexperienced way “He said ‘the towel was round her face and not her neck and then my foot touched the computer, so I thought I’m here to steal, I will have that as well’.”

Mr Donne added: “If he had any feelings for Lisa at all there’s two things you might think he would have done at this stage.

“One, he would have called the emergency services. He couldn’t really know the state Lisa was in.”

Mr Donne told the court Mann should have checked on his son upstairs to see if he was alright.

The barrister referred to how Mann had logged on to the dead woman’s laptop at his house, changing the password to the word ‘f*cked’.

Mr Donne said: “Of all the things to change the password to, the word f*cked is inconceivably, indescribably awful.

“How could anyone but the man who killed her put that on her computer. It truly was a final swipe at her memory.”

Meanwhile, Mann’s girlfriend Elizabeth Kilgallon, aged 27, of Springfield Road, Welling, denies perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.