A steel worker who brutally knifed his flatmate to death in Cricklewood claims he remembers nothing of the 10 days leading up to the attack.

Michael Purcell, 53, has admitted stabbed 49-year-old Imelda Molina to death in their flat in Ashford Court, Ashford Road, before trying to slit his own throat.

The Old Bailey heard he also stole a rucksack containing £1,000 belonging to his victim’s partner.

Purcell - originally from Tipperary in Ireland - owed £8,000 to the taxman and had been drinking a bottle-and-a-half of brandy a day in the weeks before the killing.

Ms Molina’s body was discovered by her distraught partner Amalia Valdez at on 28 October last year.

She was naked from the waist down and she had suffered multiple stab wounds to her torso, her groin and between her legs.

She had a black belt looped around her arm and a further stab wounds to her shoulders and arm pit.

Purcell’s door was locked, but when the forced the handle they found him lying on the bed soaked in blood, with a 10cm gash to his neck where he had tried to slit his own throat.

He admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but denies murder.

Giving evidence he said: “I had been drinking five or six double JDs a night.

“My drinking became quite a lot heavier.”

He told the court he’s gone back to Tipperary in early October to say goodbye to his mother because he had been planning on killing himself.

When asked what he could remember of the murder, he said: “Practically nothing, very, very, very little recollection of any of the days for a week-and-a-half.’

Purcell denies murder and burglary but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.