A gardener accused of strangling an 80-year-old woman with a mower cord in an attempt to take control of an allotment society has admitted regularly smoking opium in his shed.
Rahim Mohammadi, 41, from Hackney, east London, told the Old Bailey he heard shouting on the day Lea Adri-Soejoko was killed at the Colindale allotments in north London.
He denies beating up her up and then throttling her to stop her reporting him.
Adri-Soejoko’s body was found in a shed after she failed to turn up at a meeting on the evening of 27 February last year. She had been strangled with the starter cord of a Mountfield lawnmower.
The prosecution alleges Mohammadi wanted Adri-Soejoko to retire as secretary of the allotments so he could take over.
Tensions between the two had flared in public at the allotment’s annual general meeting four months earlier. When Adri-Soejoko told him to “shut up” in a discussion over enforcement notices, he called her “little witch” as he walked out, the court heard.
Giving evidence, Mohammadi said he was embarrassed about calling Adri-Soejoko names and later apologised to her over tea in his shed.
Describing the incident, he said: “Towards the end of the meeting I stand up and say, ‘bye bye little witch’ because she used to call me ‘little puppy’. I wanted to apologise first because I was embarrassed really because I had said ‘shut up’ in front of a few people. It was not nice.”
Tyrone Smith QC, defending, asked what their relationship was like afterwards. The defendant said he was embarrassed but she told him to “forget it”.
Mohammadi admitted smoking opium at least “four or five times a month” at his plot to relieve back pain. Two days before the killing, the defendant said he met a man on the allotment who offered to sell him £200 of opium. He arranged to see another associate to collect the remainder of the drugs on the day of the killing.
Mohammadi said he had gone to Adri-Soejoko’s house to collect a key to the main gate. She gave him coffee and asked his advice about carpeting her stairs because the boards were slippery, he said.
He later returned a tape measure to Adri-Soejoko, he said.
The defendant said he made three trips away from the allotment during the day to buy tobacco, water and opium and spent time watching YouTube videos at his shed.
He told jurors that when he left on his third trip, he heard someone shouting but carried on. He said: “I just said to myself now they are drunk and they are fighting each other.”
The court has heard how Mohammadi, as a Kurd, sought political asylum from Iran in 2005 and was given indefinite leave to remain in 2010.
His association with the allotment began when he was referred there in 2008 by the charity Freedom from Torture.
He said he went to the allotments once or twice a week and shared a plot with other group members as he found it quiet and peaceful.
The trial continues.
