Killer says friend 'felt godlike after murder'

A convicted murderer told a jury yesterday how he and his friend abducted two teenagers, raped and then strangled them to death in separate attacks.

A convicted murderer told a jury yesterday how he and his friend abducted two teenagers, raped and then strangled them to death in separate attacks.

In the first incident the men seized a 19-year-old at a deserted railway station before killing her on a snowy playing field, the Old Bailey heard.

John Duffy, who has already been jailed for life for the murder, broke down as he recalled how the young woman had pleaded for her life moments before he saw David Mulcahy "put material round her neck and start twisting".

The pair had earlier raped Alison Day, 19, and Mr Mulcahy feared she could identify them, Duffy told the court.

In 1988 Duffy was sentenced to life for murdering Ms Day and Maartje Tamboezer, 15, and for a series of rapes. While in jail, Duffy, 41, confessed to further attacks and named Mr Mulcahy as his partner in some.

He is the key witness in the trial of Mr Mulcahy, 41, a builder, of Chalk Farm, London, who denies raping and murdering three women - Miss Day, Miss Tamboezer and Anne Lock, seven further rapes and five charges of conspiracy to rape.

The prosecution alleges that the two former school friends took part in so-called "hunting expeditions" looking for women to rape between 1982 and 1986.

Duffy yesterday told the court how he and Mr Mulcahy had gone out in a van on the night of 19 December 1985 looking for a victim in north London.

They saw Ms Day get off a train at a deserted station at Hackney Wick, London. The pair grabbed her and forced her to walk along the railway and beside a canal, the jury was told.

Duffy said he raped Ms Day, stopping briefly as a man walked close by, before Mr Mulcahy took his turn in raping her. The young woman was being led back across the bridge by Mr Mulcahy when Duffy said he heard her cry, "no, no" before she was pushed into the canal.

Duffy said he fished her out of the freezing water but she ran off. The men caught her and he said Mr Mulcahy raped her again. Afterwards he said the victim would recognise them and took her across a playing field, Duffy told the court.

Duffy said: "She was saying, 'Please, it's only the moustache I have seen. I will not tell anyone. Don't hurt me."'

At this point Duffy appeared to falter and gulp in air. The court was adjourned briefly.

Later Duffy said his former friend "started going on again about her being able to identify us, saying 'We've got to do this together'. When he gave me the material, it had some wood in it. I gave it about a half twist and I let it fall and walked away."

Duffy went on to describe how four months later he murdered a girl of 15 by choking her with her belt. He said Mr Mulcahy was like an "excited schoolboy" and slapped him on the back to congratulate him.

Duffy told the jury how Maartje Tamboezer, a Dutch schoolgirl, was dragged off her bicycle on a country path near her home in Horsley, Surrey, on 17 April 1986, and raped by him.

Duffy said Mr Mulcahyknocked her unconscious with a rock before she was strangled.

"He [Mulcahy] started getting hysterical, saying: 'It's your turn. I did the last one, you do this one'," said Duffy. "He was enjoying it, saying it gave him power - making the decision between life and death."

He said Mr Mulcahy had said: "It's almost godlike."

Duffy later described how the pair abducted and raped Ann Locke, 29, a secretary, at Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire in May 1996. She was later found murdered.

The trial continues.