A MAN accused of murdering an Ipswich charity worker told police she had died accidentally while they were having “kinky” sex, a court has heard.

A MAN accused of murdering an Ipswich charity worker told police she had died accidentally while they were having “kinky” sex, a court has heard.

Robert McCarry claimed 34-year-old Nicola West asked him to strangle her to heighten her sexual pleasure and had kept telling him to squeeze her throat tighter and tighter.

During police interviews read to a jury at Ipswich Crown Court, McCarry said an injury to his left hand prevented him from squeezing her throat as hard as she wanted so he had used her bra to apply pressure to her neck.

He said he had suddenly realised that Miss West, who worked as a distribution manager for St Elizabeth Hospice, wasn't breathing and had slapped he face to try and wake her up.

“I'm addicted to sex and have sex with four or five women a week. I've done this loads of times before and nothing like this has happened. She wasn't choking - normally if I do it too hard they start choking and I ease up a bit,” he told police.

“I tried to breathe into her mouth and slapped her and said 'Wake up. Wake up',” said McCarry.

Asked by Dc Derek Riley about injuries to Miss West's face including a “fat lip” and a mark believed to have been caused by a distinctive ring worn by McCarry he denied punching her in the face before she died.

He said he had slapped Miss West's face to rouse her when he realised she wasn't moving and conceded that in his state of panic “it might have been more than slapping”.

McCarry said he and Miss West had had “rough sex” but said he could only vaguely remember what happened because he was drunk.

He hadn't given much thought to the consequences of squeezing her throat because of the amount he had to drink and only realised he had gone too far when she stopped moving, he said.

“I didn't think I would kill her. She wanted kinky sex and I wanted kinky sex,” he said.

McCarry, 36, of Vernon Street, Ipswich, and Paul Waters, 29, of Sandpiper Road, Ipswich, have denied murdering Miss West of Leather Bottle Hill, Little Blakenham in February.

McCarry has also denied two offences of raping Miss West on February 8 and Waters has denied attempting to rape her and aiding and abetting McCarry on one of the rape charges.

Both men have denied perverting the course of justice and McCarry has denied conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

It has been alleged that McCarry raped Miss West in a flat in Vernon Street after meeting her in the Punch and Judy pub in Ipswich.

He and Miss West had then been driven to an area near the dry ski slope at Wherstead by Waters where McCarry had raped her again and Waters had allegedly attempted to rape her.

Miss West allegedly died after being strangled by McCarry and he and Waters had then driven around for two days with Miss West's body in the boot before handing themselves in at Ipswich police station.

In interviews with police Waters said he had picked McCarry and Miss West up in his car from the Silver Star pub and McCarry had told him to drive to the dry ski slope.

He said McCarry and Miss West had sex in the back of his car and one of them had asked him to join in.

However, Waters hadn't been able to get an erection and had got back into the front of the car. He claimed McCarry and Miss West had started “grabbing each others throats” and he heard Miss West say “grab me harder”.

He then heard McCarry say she had stopped breathing and he had tried to persuade him to take her to a hospital.

Waters said McCarry had been reluctant to do that because he didn't think anyone would believe his account of how she had died.

The trial continues today .