Homeless man pleads guilty to unsolved 1983 Cricklewood murder

A homeless man who walked into a police station to admit to a killing he committed more than 37 years ago has pleaded guilty to murder.

Anthony Kemp, 59, bludgeoned head waiter Christopher Ainscough, 50, inside his own home in Cricklewood, north-west London, in December 1983.

"You know what, I'm homeless, and I'm not going to sleep on the streets," Kemp told police last July.

The original murder inquiry was closed in 1985 after no leads were found.

Kemp threw stones at the window of Chiswick Police station, west London, in the early hours of the morning. When an officer came out to speak with him, he confessed to the murder.

The Old Bailey heard the pair had met on a night out and Mr Ainscough invited Kemp back to his home where he was bludgeoned to death.

It is thought he used a 2.4kg marble ashtray found at the scene.

When police checked his story they found his DNA on a cigarette butt left at Mr Ainscough's house.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson QC told the court: "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."

Angela Moriarty, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said "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."

Kemp, who appeared via video, will be sentenced on 13 October and faces a mandatory life sentence.