A MAN accused of murdering his gay lover was unable to explain why he had used the dead man’s card on a spending spree.
Defendant Desmond Lee told a jury furniture that he had ordered online using Christopher Pratt’s bank cards ‘was for no-one’ and had been purchased ‘on a spur of the moment’.
Lee, 39, of Sackville Street, Ravensthorpe, admits killing the 51-year-old father-of-two at his flat on August 16, 2009 but has denied murder.
Mr Pratt, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, died from a broken voice box and neck bone.
Lee claims Mr Pratt was killed in a freak sex accident.
Leeds Crown Court yesterday heard Lee had ordered a mattress, two leather sofas and a towel bale from Asda, using Mr Pratt’s bank cards, the morning after he had died.
Two days later, after he had dumped Mr Pratt’s naked body on Scammonden Moor, he ordered £1,100 of goods from Argos using the deceased’s payment cards.
Prosecuting David Hatton QC asked Lee to explain why he had bought household goods using Mr Pratt’s credit card.
Lee replied: “I thought: ‘Let’s have a try.’
Mr Hatton: “Why did you want to ‘have a try’?
Lee: “I don’t know. It was foolish”
Mr Hatton: “It was callous, cynical and you weren’t remotely concerned about Mr Pratt being dead?”
Lee: “I was numb.”
Mr Hatton: “Numb from having murdered him?”
Lee: “I didn’t murder him.”
He added: “They were for no one. It was on a spur of the moment.”
The court also heard from forensic pathologist Dr Kenneth Shorrock.
Dr Shorrock said a combination of factors during sex – pressure on Mr Pratt’s chest, his face-down position and pressure from Lee’s arm around his neck – may have contributed to Mr Pratt’s asphyxiation.
But Dr Shorrock said he could not identify which could have been the primary cause of death.
He added people had accidentally been killed due to pressure on the neck while they were being restrained.
But Dr Shorrock said he had not heard of it happening during sex.
The prosecution and the defence are expected to make their closing speeches tomorrow in the trial.
The judge will then sum up the evidence and the jury is expected to retire to consider a verdict.
