MURDER suspect Mark Numms boasted of throttling homeless teenager who was found dead in an Oxford meadow, a court heard.

Numms allegedly showed the body of Richard Jackson to friends and went drinking in nearby pubs before calling police to say he had found the dead youngster.

The 16-year-old's corpse was found face-down in a puddle in Angel Meadow on January 29 last year.

A post mortem examination, though initially inconclusive, later revealed he had been strangled from behind.

Numms, 25, of Iffley Road, Oxford, denies murder. Richard Latham, prosecuting, told a jury at Oxford Crown Court yesterday the pair had met while staying at the Bridge hostel in Iffley Road.

On the day of Jackson's death, the pair had gone out drinking together and ended up in Angel Meadow, near Magdalen Bridge.

During the evening Numms had gone back to the Bridge to get something to eat and claimed that when he returned to the meadow Jackson was already dead. Mr Latham, however, said Numms had told friends at the homeless hostel he had killed Jackson.

The jury also heard that, while awaiting trial at Bullingdon Prison, near Bicester, he had told fellow inmate Kevin Williams he had been drinking with Jackson and had killed him with a stranglehold in a skirmish.

The trial continues.

Story date: Tuesday 08 February

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