A MAN killed his housemate then left his body on the kitchen floor for ten days before confessing to a tarot card reader, a court heard.

Star Randel-Hanson, 49, is alleged to have stabbed Derick Marney then carried on living in their Vernon Terrace flat in Brighton.

Lewes Crown Court heard the pair had met at a spiritualist church in Brighton.

While they were not partners, they had shared a bed and Randel-Hanson said Mr Marney had sexually abused him three times, the jury heard.

On May 4 this year Mr Randel-Hanson stabbed his housemate to death before leaving him on the floor. The court heard he later bundled the 70-year-old spiritual medium’s will and some of his cash in a plastic bag.

After ten days with the body he visited tarot reader Jayne Braiden.

When the cards revealed “something strange” he told her he had stabbed and killed Mr Marney, the court heard.

But when she phoned 999 to say she had a murderer sitting in her shop, the police call handler told her to call the non-emergency number instead. She told the court it was then another 55 minutes before officers arrived.

Randel-Hanson denies murder, claiming he must have wounded Mr Marney accidentally when he confronted him while he made sandwiches.

Opening the case yesterday, James Mulholland QC, said: “At about 4.30pm on the afternoon of Monday, May 4, police received a 999 call from a tarot card reader.

“She was calling to report a death. She said earlier a man had walked into her shop and asked for what’s called a double psychic reading and that reading took place.

“During that reading a man told her that he had stabbed and killed another male with a kitchen knife.”

The court heard that officers went to the pair’s flat where they found Mr Marney’s body in the kitchen and a knife on the floor.

Interviewed by police, Randel-Hanson accepted causing his death, but said he “had no intention of causing Mr Marney any serious injury at all,” Mr Mulholland said.

Randel-Hanson denies murder. The trial continues.

TAROT READER HEARS MAN’S CONFESSION AFTER A SEQUENCE OF FOREBODING CARDS

TAROT card reader Jayne Braiden recognised the man who walked into her shop shortly after 4pm on the evening of May 4, jurors heard.

The spiritualist, who has had a shop in Madeira Drive, Brighton for more than 20 years, had spoken to Star Randel-Hanson in November. He had come in for a reading after having gone through problems at college.

But now he seemed more troubled, jurors heard. He asked for a double psychic reading, something unusual. She asked him if he had a lot to talk about.

“It is terrible, it is terrible,” he replied, the court heard.

The pair sat down in her small reading room, facing each other. He shuffled 10 cards, prosecutor James Mulholland QC said.

“As he began to turn over certain cards it became apparent to her that they began to reveal something strange,” he told jurors.

The first card was the ‘blasted tower’. That means “lots of arguments, lots of bad feelings,” Miss Braiden told jurors.

Then there was ‘the emperor’, which signified a dominant male. Then there was the ‘death card,’ the court heard.

She told him she could “see that something really bad has happened and that we need to discuss this further,” she recalled. He said: “It’s really bad,” jurors heard.

“I said to him we need to talk about everything that has happened,” she continued. “And that is when he told me [...] He said that he had killed him.”

As Mr Randel-Hanson sat there crying, she told him that she would have to call police. He said that was OK, jurors heard.

She called 999 and told the operator she was a tarot reader. She said: “I have a man in my shop and I know it is going to be hard to believe but I have just seen that he has murdered someone.”

The operator replied: “OK, it’s not a 999 call I am afraid. It is a 101 [the non-emergency number] call.”

Miss Braiden persisted, stressing that the ‘killer’ in her shop had confessed and the body had not yet been found, the court heard.

The call handler said she will register it as a grade two call, meaning police will be there within the hour, according to the recording played to the court.

When Miss Braiden said she could not keep him there until then, the operator replied: “I wouldn’t ask you to keep him there... Tell me what he looks like.”

She kept him talking as they waited for police. “We changed subjects and laughed at the time police were taking,” she recalled.

After 55 minutes police arrived, she said. They arrested Mr Randel-Hanson and after he handed over the Yale and Chubb keys for the flat, they went back to Vernon Terrace.

There they found the body of Mr Marney, slumped against a radiator in the kitchen, with four blood-stained white towels around his lower half. There was a 7.8 inch bloodied knife on the floor and an open loaf of sliced Warburtons bread on the counter.

Police found Mr Marney’s will and cash in a plastic bag.

The pair had met at the Brotherhood Gate Spiritualist Church in Brighton in 2013, when Mr Randel-Hanson was living in Tyson Place.

In 2014, Mr Marney invited him to move in for “company”. There was no sexual contact between the pair at that time, the court heard, and Mr Randel-Hanson slept in a box room.

But that became too full and Mr Marney suggested they sleep in the master bedroom together, jurors heard.

When Mr Randel-Hanson refused, he called him homophobic and so the pair shared a bed, one under and one over the covers, the court heard.

But in the following months, Mr Marney tried to initiate “unwelcome” sexual contact, jurors were told.

Mr Randel-Hanson alleged that between October 2014 and January 2015, Mr Marney sexually abused him on three occasions.

The defendant said the pair were arguing about his plans to go to London to find work when the stabbing happened, jurors heard. He had been using a knife to cut the crust off bread for sandwiches and turned around as Mr Marney confronted him.

Prosecutor Mr Mulholland said the defendant claimed “he was not sure exactly how Mr Marney had come to receive such injuries.

“But he believed it must have happened accidentally when he turned around to defend himself.”

In the days that followed, with Mr Marney’s body on the floor, he went to Hove police station to tell them what had happened, he told Ms Braiden. But he found it had closed and went away.