A man accused of murdering two women described himself as a “psychopath with a conscience”, a court has heard.

Mark Brown, 41, from Squirrel Close in St Leonards, is accused of murdering 34-year-old Alexandra Morgan and 33-year-old Leah Ware.

He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, read out a message at Hove Crown Court allegedly sent by Brown to a friend in which he described himself as a “psychopath with a conscience” and hinted at the process the prosecution claim he used to dispose of Leah and Alexandra’s remains.

The message read: I’m going to be very careful how I word this - it happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something.

“It’s a very unpleasant thing to do - an old oil drum, five litres of diesel and hey presto, there’s not very much left.

“It gets hot, very hot, it glows almost white. The things I have done weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul. A psychopath with a conscience - it’s a joke really.”

Alexandra, a mother-of-two from Sissinghurst in Kent was reported missing in November last year after failing to return from what she told her family was a weekend away with a friend.

She was last seen putting petrol in her car at a garage in Cranbook in Kent on November 14.

Mr Atkinson told the court Alexandra was a sex worker and had arranged to meet Brown at a site he rented - Little Bridge Farm near Hastings.

Her remains, including burned bone fragments and teeth, were found inside an oil drum in a skip at a building site near Sevenoaks in Kent, where Brown was working at the time of her disappearance.

Brown has admitted to disposing of Miss Morgan’s body “in a panic” after what he claims was an accident in which she died.

Leah, a mother-of-three from Hastings, disappeared in May last year.

The court heard that she first met Brown in March 2018 and their relationship developed and she lived in a static caravan and later a converted shipping container at Little Bridge Farm until the prosecution say she was killed.

Leah told friends and family in the months before her disappearance that Brown had become more controlling of her actions and behaviours, and had sometimes locked her inside the shipping container.

Her remains have never been found, with Brown maintaining that she is still alive.

However, in messages to friends, Brown told different people she had been “sectioned”, sent to a “mental hospital”, or had “killed herself”, referring to Leah in the past tense.

The trial continues.