Brighton prostitute murder accused 'looked pale'

Andrea Waddell was strangled in her flat in Upper Lewes Road

A man accused of strangling a woman in her flat in Brighton appeared "pale and subdued" after the alleged murder, a court has heard.

The prosecution says Neil McMillan, 42, spent hours drinking and looking at pornography before visiting prostitute Andrea Waddell, 29, on 15 October.

Lewes Crown Court was told he appeared "pale-faced compared to his usual ruddy look" following the visit to her flat.

Mr McMillan, of Bennett Road, Brighton, denies murder.

Prosecutor Simon Russell Flint told jurors Mr McMillan's landlord noticed a change in his demeanour and he "didn't appear to be his normal self" after he visited Ms Waddell in Upper Lewes Road.

'Subdued and quiet'

The court heard he also changed his clothes, showered for a second time that day and asked his landlord if he could use the washing machine, saying he needed a change for work.

The next day, colleagues of Mr McMillan, who worked as a satellite installer, also noticed a change in his character, saying he seemed "subdued and quiet", the court was told.

Neil McMillan is said to have strangled Ms Waddell and set fire to her flat

It is claimed that Mr McMillan, who admits visiting Ms Waddell for sex, strangled her and then torched an area around her body and a second part of her room before fleeing her flat.

During a police interview Mr McMillan said he heard someone else go into another part of the building while he was at Ms Waddell's flat.

Mr Russell Flint said: "The defendant's account that there was an unnamed stranger lurking in the flat is, we would contend, a complete fiction."

Mr Russell Flint said when Mr McMillan was told during the police interview that Ms Waddel was transgender he said he would not have been with her had he known, but would not hurt someone for being "cross-gender".

The case continues.