Man admits murder after nearly 40 years
A HOMELESS man has admitted bludgeoning a head waiter to death with a marble ashtray, bringing to an end a cold case spanning nearly 40 years.
Anthony Kemp, 59, killed Dublin-born Christopher Ainscough after they met on a night out in December 1983.
Mr Ainscough, 50, had invited Kemp back to his home in Kilburn north-west London in the early hours of the morning.
His body was discovered by police who went to check on him when he did not turn up to work at the Grieveson Grant and Co restaurant in the City, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
He had suffered devastating head injuries, including a fractured skull from being hit with a marble ashtray weighing 2.4kg, which was found at the scene.
The original murder investigation into Mr Ainscough’s death was closed in 1985 after no leads were found.
On July 28 last year, Kemp turned up at Chiswick police station in west London and began to throw stones at the window, before an officer came out to speak to him just after 4am.
Kemp then confessed to the murder, telling the officer: “You know what, I’m homeless, and I’m not going to sleep on the streets.”
Kemp, who was previously an alcoholic and heroin user with a capacity for “extreme violence”, later tried to retract his confession.
But police matched his DNA to that left on a cigarette butt discarded at the scene of the murder.
At a hearing at the Old Bailey yesterday, Kemp, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to the murder.
Prosecutor Gareth Patterson QC said Kemp had killed the victim in a “wholly disproportionate response” to being touched.
He said: “The prosecution do not dispute the suggestion there may have been an invitation to the flat and then touching of the defendant by Mr Ainscough.
“We do not dispute that - however, obviously, the prosecution case is, all the defendant then had to do was to say no or to walk away.
“So in those circumstances it seems to us it was a wholly disproportionate response. It was an angry response to the touching.”
The defendant entered his guilty plea by video link from Wandsworth prison.
Judge John Hillen remanded him into custody and adjourned sentencing until October 13.
Angela Moriarty, from the CPS, said afterwards: “This case remained unsolved for more than 35 years before Anthony Kemp turned up at a police station to confess to a murder.
“He later retracted the confession and went on to blame another man, who had been dead for some years, before finally admitting the murder.
“Although we have never been able to trace any of his family, I hope this conviction provides some sense of closure to all those who knew Mr Ainscough.”