Kettering murder trial: Accused 'told friend he had trophy body in flat'

Mindaugas Kaminskas is on trial at Northampton Crown Court and has denied killing Juozas Meilunas, 51, at a flat in Woodlands Court in Wood Street.

Mr Meilunas is believed to have been killed in late September or early October but his body was not found until Boxing Day after a flood.

Today (Tuesday) the court heard that in early October - around the same time that Mr Meilunas died - Kaminskas, 29, went for a walk with his friend Richard Wooton.

Prosecuting, Mary Loram said: "He told Mr Wooton that there was a dead body in his flat and that he was going to keep it as a trophy."

His claim was ignored but Mrs Loram said the dead body was down to him.

She said: "If he was not responsible he would have got help.

"He would have told someone, he would have done something."

Kaminskas, of no fixed abode, had his phone searched as part of the investigation.

One message that had been deleted but was recovered through software said: "I have kicked a friend a number of times."

The jury of seven men and five women was also told about a conversation Lithuanian national Kaminskas had with Svaja Rapalvicuite, a friend of his ex-partner.

Svaja had asked him if he had any friends.

Mrs Loram said: "He said "no, I punch them all. I killed one."

"He then backtracked and said he was joking...maybe he wanted to tell someone?

"Whatever the motivation that was not a joke. That, we say, was a confession."

He had earlier admitted battery and assault in London after punching a driver repeatedly.

Mrs Loram said it was the Crown's case that Kaminskas was the sort of person to have these outbursts.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.