AN IPSWICH man accused of killing a homosexual confessed what he had done to family, friends, police and a doctor – but was not initially taken seriously because there was no sign of a body, a court has heard.

Shortly after repeatedly stabbing 36-year-old Simon Amers at his flat in Widgeon Close, Ipswich, Rodney Greenland turned up at a friend’s flat in the middle of the night with bloodstains on his trousers and plastic bags on his feet and said he had killed someone.

“He wasn’t immediately believed – he was drunk,” said Andrew Jackson, prosecuting.

The next day Greenland had contacted his ex-wife and daughter and told them that he had killed a man and was trying to get psychiatric help. They had driven to Ipswich from Kent and had taken him to Ipswich Hospital.

There, Greenland told a doctor that he had gone to a man’s house to listen to music and that he thought the man was gay.

He said the man had “touched him in the wrong place” and he had stabbed him twice in the chest with a knife from the kitchen, said Mr Jackson.

The doctor had contacted the police and when officers went to Greenland’s flat in the early hours of the morning they found him drunk, slumped by his front door.

He told them that he had killed someone and that when the police found the body he would hand himself in, said Mr Jackson. He also said that he didn’t feel any remorse for what he had done.

Greenland was driven around the area of the town where he thought it had happened but was unable to identify an address. “Officers formed the view that this was a drunken man and nothing had probably happened and they took him home,” said Mr Jackson.

Greenland, 47, of Manchester Road, Ipswich, has denied murdering Mr Amers between July 27-30 last year. The court has heard that at an earlier hearing he admitted manslaughter.

Mr Jackson told the court that on July 27 last year Greenland and Mr Amers had both been out drinking in Ipswich and after meeting in a pub had gone back to Mr Amers’ flat for a drink.

While there Greenland had picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed him seven times in the chest and abdomen and slashed his throat after Mr Amers’ allegedly stroked him on the leg.

After the attack Greenland had removed his blood-drenched socks and put plastic bags on his feet before leaving Mr Amers naked and face down in a pool of blood near the front door.

Mr Amers’ body was discovered on July 30 by a friend who had let herself into his flat with a key after becoming concerned at not being able to contact him and Greenland was arrested, said Mr Jackson.

Greenland told police he had been sexually abused at boarding school when he was 13 and that he had “flipped and lost it” when Mr Amers had touched him. The trial continues today.

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