Chef Admits He Had Sex With Corpse

A man accused of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman says he had sex with her dead body but did not kill her, a court has heard.

Chef Mark Dixie, 37, claims he was under the influence of drink and drugs and had "taken advantage of the situation" as the girl lay in a pool of blood.

Prosecutor Brian Altman added: "That astonishingly is his defense. It is born out of desperation. There is not a single grain of truth in it."

Bowman, 18, who also worked as a hairdresser, was killed by a sex attacker who left her for dead in front of her home, the Old Bailey heard.

She was stabbed several times in the neck and abdomen and bitten on various parts of her body.

Altman said: "This was not a motiveless attack but was motivated by sex -- to gain sexual gratification.

"Sally Anne had been savagely and brutally killed."

The stab wounds had been "so savage" that they passed through the body and out on the other side, the court heard.

Dixie's DNA was found on Bowman's body, his bloody fingerprint on her shoe and his bite marks on her cheek, neck and right nipple, it was alleged.

But he denies murdering the teenager at around midnight in September 2005.

Bowman's body was discovered by a neighbor who heard screams after she returned from a night out with friends.