Man on trial for murder of trans woman Andrea Waddell

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The man accused of killing trans sex worker Andrea Waddell strangled her and set her body alight, a court heard yesterday.

Satellite installer Neil MacMillan, 41, of Bennett Road, Brighton, denies the 29-year-old’s murder.

Ms Waddell’s naked body was found in her Brighton flat on October 15th. She had been strangled and her bedroom set on fire.

Police revealed the Durham University graduate had been working in the sex industry.

Yesterday, Lewes crown court heard that Mr MacMillan had booked Ms Waddell for an hour of sex but had gone to her flat in an angry mood after drinking seven pints of beer in four hours.

Prosecutor Simon Russell Flint QC told the court that he had applied pressure to her neck for about 20 seconds until she died.

He said: “This is a case about a murder, the murder of an unarmed, defenceless young woman in her own home in the middle of the night, a woman who had permitted her attacker to enter into her home for the purposes of sexual activity but who was then attacked, who was strangled by the neck until she was dead.”

Mr Russell Flint added that Mr MacMillan was found to have scratches on his arms when he was arrested two days after Ms Waddell’s death and the jury would have to consider how he sustained the injuries.

It is alleged the pair had sex in Ms Waddell’s bedroom and she was strangled in the bathroom. Mr MacMillan is alleged to have moved her body to the bedroom before setting the area around it and another area of the room alight.

Her body was found after neighbours smelled smoke and called the fire brigade.

Following her death, Ms Waddell’s family revealed she had been born male but transitioned while studying for a Masters degree at Sussex University.

The trial continues.

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