A BUDDHIST monk was today due in court after being charged with hacking a Basingstoke hotel colleague to death with a meat cleaver.

Thero Nalaka Rathmalane, 35, was set to be taken to Winchester Crown Court after being remanded in custody on Christmas Eve.

Nalaka is accused of murdering another Sri Lankan monk, Thero Siriwimala Patapiliyagoda, 30, in the servants' quarters at Audley's Wood Thistle Hotel on the A339 Alton Road where they were both contract working as housekeepers.

A murder inquiry was launched after the mutilated body of Mr Siriwimala was discovered in a suitcase near Basingstoke railway station last Thursday.

The area around Basingstoke Cycle Works - about 80 yards from the front of the station - was cordoned off following the macabre discovery.

Nalaka was arrested by officers in Surrey the following day and was brought back to Basingstoke police station for questioning. At the time of his arrest, he allegedly had a one-way plane ticket to Sri Lanka in his possession.

After being interviewed by detectives, Nalaka was charged with murder and subsequently appeared before Basingstoke magistrates on Monday.

Dressed in black with his head shaved, the Sri Lankan stood calmly in the dock during the 30-minute hearing, nodding when the translator told him the charge.

He was remanded in custody until his appearance at Winchester Crown Court today. A hotel colleague of the dead man told The Gazette that Mr Siriwimala was shy and spoke in broken English.

"He preferred to keep himself to himself. I would only speak to him when I passed through the kitchen," she said.

Murder squad detectives still want to hear from anyone with information which might assist their inquiries. Officers can be contacted on 0845 045 45 45.