A TAX adviser to the Government was beaten and stabbed to death by a teenager he met on the mobile gay dating app Grindr, a court heard.

Ben Bamford, 18, posed for a grinning selfie photograph just hours after stabbing senior civil servant Paul Jefferies at his secluded cottage in Coggins Mill Lane in Mayfield.

Bamford is standing trial accused of murdering Mr Jefferies, who was an advisor to George Osborne on tax policy, in a "sustained attack" because he owed hundreds of pounds to a drug dealer.

The teenager, of South Street, Crowborough, who was 17 at the time later told his mother: "I think the man in dead. I stabbed him", the jury heard.

Prosecutor Jeremy Carter-Manning told the jury at Lewes Crown Court yesterday: "There is no dispute who killed Mr Jefferies. Your focus will be on what was in the defendants mind at the time these events happened."

The jury was told: "He said the man came on to him and tried to rape him and there had been a struggle.

"He said when the man came on to him he couldn't get away from him. He said: 'He did things to me so I stabbed him'.

"He tried to get out but the door was locked. He panicked when he couldn't get out .

"He found a knife block in the kitchen took a knife from it and took it back upstairs."

The court was told that Mr Jefferies had suffered multiple injuries including the fatal slash across his throat with a serrated knife, stab wounds to his chest, arm and abdomen and several head injuries from a blunt object.

Mr Carter-Manning said blood was found on four knives from a kitchen knife block, the handle of a knife sharpening steel and a marble rolling pin.

The court heard how Bamford and Mr Jefferies had been in contact after meeting on the dating mobile phone app in the early summer of 2014.

The pair had met twice - Bamford told police when he later handed himself in - and had sexual contact on the second occasion, but Bamford did not like it.

He told police via a prepared statement from his solicitor that he accepted "having used a knife that caused an injury that resulted in Paul Jefferies death",

Mr Carter-Manning said: "He was short of money and hoped Mr Jefferies might give him some if they met.

"They had sex but he told Mr Jefferies to stop, but he wouldn't. He made an excuse of needing to go to the toilet and went downstairs intending to get away because he was incredibly scared.

"But the door was locked. He searched for a key but couldn't find one.

"He was only wearing his boxer shorts and he saw a small knife on the side and picked it up to protect himself should Paul try to have sex with him again. "In attempting to escape he caused injury to Paul."

Bamford denies murder. The trial continues.