A rent boy who allegedly murdered a man fled the scene because he feared deportation to South Africa where a “fatwa” had been issued against him, a court was told.

Ricardo Pisano, 36, said controversial vigilante group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) had ordered his death because he was deemed “trouble- some or a threat”.

Pisano, dubbed The Artful Dodger after escaping from a New Zealand jail, told police that if he was deported to South Africa he would be “dead in a week”.

He is on trial at Lewes Crown Court accused of murdering Michael Polding at his flat in St George’s Road, Brighton, after allegedly bleeding him dry financially.

The badly decomposed body of openly gay Mr Polding, 62, was found by police neatly positioned and wrapped up in bedding in his rented two-bedroom flat on July 16 last year.

Mr Polding, who met Pisano in December 2009 after Pisano advertised himself as a rent boy in a gay magazine, died nearly two months earlier from “blunt force trauma” to his chest.

Following the death, Pisano went on the run for nearly a year until he was arrested at a house in Southampton under a different name, the court has heard.

In police interviews heard in court, Pisano said he came back to the flat to find Mr Polding had hanged himself from a bannister in an apparent suicide.

Jurors were shown the position of the ligature round Mr Polding's neck in demonstrations Pisano had given police using a cup, a lanyard and a pen.

He told officers that after discovering Mr Polding’s body, he feared for his life and remarked: “Oh no, not again.”.

He added: “If I’m deported to South Africa, I will be dead in a week. I fear that any of my family members will be shot.”

Pisano claimed that Pagad was responsible for numerous killings of people deemed a “nuisance to society” and that he had become a target after setting up a successful business.

Pisano denies murder and causing grievous bodily harm but has admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body, the jury has heard.

Pisano said that following the issuing of the fatwa against him, he left South Africa and ended up in numerous countries, including New Zealand and the United States.

Asked what he meant by a fatwa, he explained: “They want you dead in the name of their god.”

After six months in New Zealand he went to Fiji before returning to New Zealand again.

Asked why he had become the focus of a death threat in South Africa, he told officers: “Being someone they felt was troublesome or a threat, they killed. “I was particularly successful in my young days. I had a pool shop. They sent petitions round to get me closed.”

The case continues.