MURDER accused Alan Pickersgill yesterday told a court Julie Bywater strangled herself as a bondage sex game went “horribly wrong”.

The former Sunseeker carpenter told Winchester Crown Court Ms Bywater had requested something to put around her neck to heighten her arousal. Pickersgill said he gave her a plastic cable tie and left her in control of its use but she turned purple and stopped breathing.

The prosecution alleges Pickersgill strangled the teaching assistant after becoming dangerously obsessed with her in the wake of a brief romance. The 37-year-old denies the rape and murder of Ms Bywater, 32, at his flat in Wayside Road, Southbourne, in May last year.

Pickersgill told jurors Ms Bywater had come to his flat to continue a massage session from the previous night, the pair having become massage partners on a college course.

He said there had been a “flirty” atmosphere and she had bought up the topic of bondage. When he realised what had happened, Pickersgill said he freed the tie with a Stanley knife and admitted he should have then called 999.

The jury previously heard a message left on his mum’s answerphone saying things had gone “awfully wrong” and that he had “killed Julie”.

Asked to explain the comment, Pickersgill said: “I was trying to satisfy Julie in the way she’d asked and it led to her death. I felt bad, as if I had caused it.”

The defendent was also asked to explain why his home CCTV was suddenly switched off that night. Pickersgill said it was a chivalrous act as he realised they were going to have sex.

The case continues.