An escaped prisoner killed a Yarmouth pensioner by strangling him with a belt, a court heard today. Terrence O'Keefe, said to have murdered David Kemp, 73, to fund his drug habit while he was on the run.

An escaped prisoner killed a Yarmouth pensioner by strangling him with a belt, a court heard today.

Terrence O'Keefe, said to have murdered David Kemp, 73, to fund his drug habit while he was on the run.

Mr Kemp, who was found lying on the bedroom floor in his Malakoff Close home with a belt fastened securely around his neck on March 12 last year.

It is alleged that before or after the murder O'Keefe stole �80 and a TV from Mr Kemp's home.

Norwich Crown Court heard that O'Keefe, 39, had been on the run in Yarmouth for about two months before the alleged murder, after he had escaped from a London hospital where he had been treated at.

While he was hiding out in Yarmouth, O'Keefe used alias James Daniels and lived in the home of drug addict Paul Vickers.

Graham Parkins, prosecuting, said that at some point O'Keefe had admitted to Mr Vickers that he had killed the pensioner Mr Kemp.

It is alleged that O'Keefe said: “I took care of him, I strangled him with a belt.”

The court heard that DNA evidence was found on the belt around the neck of Mr Kemp which linked O'Keefe to the scene.

O'Keefe denies murdering Mr Kemp sometime between March 4 and March 13 last year.

The trial continues and is expected to last six days.