Homeless man who wanted to be jailed confesses murder

A HOMELESS man admitted that he bludgeoned a waiter to death 40 years ago because he wanted to end his days in prison rather than on the streets, a court has heard.

Anthony Kemp was 21 when he attacked Christopher Ainscough with a marble ashtray after they met on a night out in December 1983. In July last year he attended Chiswick Police Station in west London to confess.

The Old Bailey heard how he arrived in the early hours, before an officer came out to speak to him. Prosecutor Gareth Patterson told the court Kemp had told the officer he had murdered someone over an argument.

He said Kemp told him: “I’m not going to live on the streets. I’d rather the Government look after me. I’d rather do the last few years of my life in bang-up than sleep on the streets.”

Kemp retracted his confession three days later when released on bail. He blamed the killing on his accomplice in an aggravated burglary in 1988, who had committed suicide in prison.

But police matched his DNA to that on a cigarette in the victim’s sitting room. Last month, Kemp, now 59, pleaded guilty to murder and he will be sentenced today.