A MAN accused of murdering a hospice worker told a friend that her death was a tragic accident that happened during “kinky” sex that went horribly wrong.

A MAN accused of murdering a hospice worker told a friend that her death was a tragic accident that happened during “kinky” sex that went horribly wrong.

In a letter to a former girlfriend written while in prison, Robert McCarry said he did not mean to kill 34-year-old Nicola West.

He said co-defendant Paul Waters had picked them up from outside the Silver Star pub in Ipswich and the three of them had driven to the dry ski slope on Wherstead Road.

When there they drank vodka and he ended up having sexual intercourse with the St Elizabeth Hospice distribution manager in the back of Waters' car.

He wrote that during this Miss West asked him to strangle her because she was into “kinky” sex.

McCarry, 36, of Vernon Street, Ipswich, and 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 admitted McCarry and Miss West had sex in the back of his car and one of them had asked him to join in but he was unable to get an erection and got back in the front of the vehicle.

He claims he heard Miss West say “grab me harder” and that the next thing he knew McCarry said she had stopped breathing.

When asked by officers why he did not take McCarry straight to a police station Waters said he was scared.

“I always go along with Rob,” he told the interviewer. “The first time I stood up to him he beat me up.”

The trial continues on January 7.