A killer who bludgeoned a man to death with a hammer left the murder weapon in the sofa of a woman he went on an internet date with, a court has heard.
David Iwo, 23, had gone on a date with the woman and went back to her home just 24 hours after killing Martin Decker, 69, in cold blood on March 7 in the Wirral.
The woman called the police on Iwo after he refused to leave her property, and when officers arrived he agreed to leave and was allowed to go on his way, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Prosecutor Alan Kent, QC, told the court: "Police were called to reports that a woman had met a man online, who then asked to stay at her address.
"He had arrived the night before and she stated that she was scared and he was refusing to leave."
Officers arrived at the scene and found Iwo, who gave the name Jessie King, which the court heard was an alias he had used previously.
Iwo - who was not a suspect in Mr Decker's murder at this point - returned to London and checked into a hotel.
But by March 10, CCTV evidence led to Iwo's identification, and detectives swooped on him to make an arrest.
When they searched the woman's home for any links to the murder, they found a a claw hammer with visible bloodstaining on the head and handle underneath one of the cushions on her sofa.
DNA testing confirmed the blood was Mr Decker's, while Iwo's DNA was also present on the handle.
Iwo was jailed for life with a minimum term of 33 years in prison at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to Mr Decker's murder.
The court heard Iwo, who was homeless, had posed as a sex worker online advertising services to gay men - while in reality he had "made the conscious decision" to kill them and steal their money.
During the investigation, Iwo told police he was disappointed that he was caught after his first murder.
Iwo struck Mr Decker, a retired Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, at least nine times with a hammer after arranging to have sex in exchange for £250.
Iwo told police he had previously butchered 30 cats and planned a sickening campaign against gay men before he was caught.
The cat killings had been carried out around Norwich and had baffled local police at the time.
The court decided not to charge over the cats, which he lured into his reach using treats, as it was a minor offence in comparison to the murder for which he had just been jailed for life.
Prosecutor Alan Kent QC said Decker’s murder was part of several violent robberies of vulnerable gay men, adding: “Had he not been caught, he would have killed again and would not have stopped until he was caught.”
The defendant, who was speaking from a video-link setup at HM Prison Manchester, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced at a hearing yesterday.
Mr Kent said the murder was a “progression of his habit of killing cats”, adding that he had tried to strangle another man one week before Decker’s death.
Justice Jacobs said: “You showed no mercy at the time, and you have never shown any remorse subsequently.
“You attacked gay men, confident that they were not going to report an attack.”
Rachel Wilson, Detective Chief Inspector of the Merseyside Police, said: “This was a brutal and senseless killing of an elderly man in his own home which has obviously devastated his family and wide circle of friends and shocked the whole community.
"The arrest and prosecution of David Iwo would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the detectives who have worked on this case, viewing hundreds of hours of CCTV footage in order to trace Iwo’s movements which led to his arrest.”
