A prisoner accused of strangling his cellmate was obsessed with vampires and serial killers, a jury was told.

Chantelle Nekka, a transgendered inmate who was at Lewes prison with the pair, described Simon Wishart as a "loveable lad"

but said he had a dark side that appeared to be fascinated by vampires and serial killers.

Wishart, 22, is accused of throttling Gareth Russell while they shared a cell there, then claiming the dead man committed suicide.

The two men shared a cell in the jail's care and support unit for vulnerable prisoners for about three months before Russell, 25, died on April 24 last year.

It is claimed in the days before the death, Wishart, who was on remand waiting to go on trial for robbery, told fellow inmates that he was going to murder Russell.

Chantelle Nekka, who was held at the unit because she was transgendered, said Wishart complained Russell was annoying him so much he wanted to kill him.

Ms Nekka, who was on remand at the time on burglary charges, said: "He said he was going to kill him. He said he would get a rope around his neck if he had to."

She told the court about games the two men played to see how much pain they could take - done to relieve the boredom of jail - including punching, burning each other and nearly suffocating with plastic bags over their heads.

Another inmate from the unit, John Rodaway, who was in prison at the time accused of arson and dealing drugs to undercover police officers, said Wishart and Russell's games were about "boyish, macho behaviour".

He said Russell had told him he was concerned about the games and was going to ask to be moved to another cell away from Wishart.

Mr Rodaway said Russell seemed "happy and relieved"

after receiving a six-year sentence days earlier for manslaughter after being cleared of murder.

He described Wishart as "scatty" and told how he bragged he had burned his parents to death in the US, where he said he originally came from. Mr Rodaway said shortly before Russell was found dead, he heard Wishart laughing loudly in their cell.

Wishart, formerly from Eastbourne, denies murder at the trial at Lewes Crown Court.

The jury has heard Wishart had claimed he found Russell hanging in the cell from heating pipes by a ligature made from torn bedsheets.

He is said to have later told a prison staff member he killed him while singing the American national anthem because Russell provoked him about his roots.

The trial continues.