“HE’S got an axe in his head and I locked him in there.”

This was the alleged confession made by a man accused of killing a man, a court has heard.

Carl Scott, who was discovered a number of weeks after he died at his Winchester home, is thought to have been attacked with an ornamental tomahawk axe in February last year, according to prosecutors.

Winchester Crown Court heard how the man who had been charged with his murder, David Gray, allegedly confessed to killing the 37-year-old while sitting watching TV.

But Gray, 36, of no fixed abode, will not stand trial accused of murder after he was deemed not fit to enter a plea on Tuesday.

Instead, a jury has been tasked by judge Jane Miller QC with deciding whether Gray “unlawfully killed” Mr Scott at Birch Court, Thurmond Crescent.

In a police interview witness Robert Ediss said: “All of a sudden he blurted out ‘11 days he’s been there’. Afterwards he said ‘he got an axe in his head and I locked him in there’.

“He said Carl Scott was terrorising him with needles.”

Mr Ediss added that Gray had said Mr Scott had “taken him hostage”.

The court heard that Gray allegedly told a number of graphic details to Mr Ediss about the death, including how he had stabbed him too, while the pair were smoking crack cocaine together at Mr Ediss’s flat.

As previously reported, Carl Scott’s body was discovered in March last year – around a month after it is thought he died.

The jury heard on Wednesday that Mr Scott was discovered by a friend who had grown concerned for his welfare.

He had last been seen on February 12, with experts estimating he died around mid-February.

Yesterday, Home Office pathologist Dr Basil Purdue told the court that Mr Scott died due to a head injury and multiple stab wounds, although a cocktail of drugs may have been a factor.

Dr Purdue told the jury that the injury to the head is believed to have been caused by a heavy object with a “well-defined edge”, which fractured the left side of Mr Scott’s skull.

He said: “There was evidence of a heavy blow... It would have required severe force.”

Dr Purdue added that he had suffered five stab wounds to the back of the chest, one of which had punctured Mr Scott’s lungs. Three other wounds were found on the front of Mr Scott’s body, but Dr Purdue said two of these may have been caused by insects after death, and the other an exit wound.

Proceeding are expected to last for several days. The trial continues.