Killer pleads self defence

Giving evidence on the sixth day of his trial, Markham told Winchester Crown Court how he killed Tristian Lovelock, 25, by hitting him twice with a hammer.

He said he "completely flipped" when he realised what he had done, leading him to cut up the body and cook Mr Lovelock's arm.

Markham - who denies murder - recalled how he and Mr Lovelock had been happily drinking strong cider together late into the night on May 30 last year at Markham's St Nicholas Court home in Basingstoke.

However, Markham alleged the atmosphere changed and Mr Lovelock threatened him with a bayonet.

Markham, 28, said: "He pushed me over with his left hand into the two-seater sofa. I asked Tristian what was wrong and he just sort of grumbled 'shut up'.

"He was moving the bayonet backwards and forwards in front of my face and chest. He wasn't waving it with his hand. He was moving his body and was getting more and more aggressive and stressed."

Markham said he thought Mr Lovelock, who he said had assaulted him on previous occasions, was going to stab him.

He told the jurors he felt a hammer underneath him on the sofa and picked it up, holding it behind his back.

"Tristian suddenly tensed up and looked away, like he was about to go for me," said Markham. "As he tensed, I was sitting down and I just leapt forward."

Thrusting his arm forward in a demonstration to the jury, Markham continued: "I just went bang and hit him straight in the face, in the forehead area. It was a really quick movement and I put a lot of effort into it."

Mr Lovelock fell back onto the sofa, clutching his head, but Markham said he then began to get up again, and made as if to come back at him with the bayonet.

"As he came up, I just knew he was going to stab me properly," he said.

"I walked over and hit him what I thought would be hard enough to knock him out so he couldn't stab me."

The court heard this blow, to the top of Mr Lovelock's head, fractured his skull and he fell back onto the floor.

Markham said Mr Lovelock was motionless, and there was a hole in his head, so he thought he was dead.

Markham said he threw the bayonet and the hammer to one side and sat down, looking at Mr Lovelock.

He put a can of cider to his lips but was unable to drink.

"I was in a panic," he said. "Then my panic turned to rage at the fact that I'd been put into this position. There was a dead person in my house. Tristian had tried to stab me, he was dead and I didn't know what to do.

"I just completely flipped - I just lost it. I picked up the hammer again and I hit him in the head and face about 15-ish times. I don't know how many times.

"The effect of me losing it just snowballed. I decided I had to get rid of the body. I don't know why, I just did."

Markham said he got a hacksaw and a wood saw out of a cupboard and dismembered the body, because it was too big to move.

He then carried some of the dismembered pieces to the nearby park, intending to bury them.

"I was just in my own world," he said. "

I didn't even notice the fact that I was walking past the front of lots of houses and stuff. I was just single-minded.

"I had to get rid of the body. I got to the park to bury bits and I didn't even have a shovel."

Markham told the jury he realised that he didn't have any way of effectively disposing of the body and threw the pieces into bushes before returning to the house.

Here, he attacked the rest of the body, stabbing a bayonet into the torso, flinging the arm into the oven in a fury and kicking the oven door shut.

"At that point I just didn't know what to do," he said. "I was almost hysterical."

The trial has heard that Markham subsequently fled to America and was arrested on June 5 in Central Park.