A JURY is considering its verdict in the trial of a chef accused of killing his ex-wife while their son slept upstairs.

Adam Mann, aged 29, of Springfield Road, Welling, denies murdering Lisa Beverley at her home in Coupland Place, Plumstead, on September 16 last year.

Mann claimed that 30-year-old Miss Beverley had asked him to break into her home and steal some belongings as part of a staged robbery so she could claim from insurance.

But he told jurors that when he got there she was already dead.

The court heard that he burgled the house anyway and left without calling emergency services.

Miss Beverley was beaten, hit with a hammer 25 times and stabbed in the neck, the Old Bailey has heard.

Prosecution barrister Jeremy Donne told jurors: “He was a man who happily and skilfully 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.”

A jury of four men and eight women retired at noon today (August 13) to consider their verdict.

They must also reach a verdict on Mann’s girlfriend Elizabeth Kilgallon, aged 27, of Springfield Road, Welling, who denies perverting the course of justice.