A psychology lecturer who was caught living under a false name in Brighton could be jailed for life for battering a colleague to death.

Steven Reid, 34, attacked Elizabeth Stacey so he could "have a friend in the afterlife", Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard yesterday.

He was convicted of her manslaughter and the sentence was adjourned until August 1 for psychiatric reports.

The 24-year-old woman's body lay undiscovered for more than a day in a laboratory at Westminster University, London, where Reid lured her last November.

The court heard Reid smashed Ms Stacey over the head with a rolling pin and then left her to drown in her own blood.

By the time another colleague found her near the blood-stained murder weapon, the lecturer had already slashed his wrists in a London hotel in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

When a second attempt failed, he shaved off his moustache and went on the run.

Reid, of Gloucester Terrace, Marylebone, London, was found two weeks later living under a false name in Brighton.

He showed no emotion as the jury acquitted him of murder at the end of a 12-day trial.

They convicted him of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Edinburgh-born Reid, has never denied being responsible for Ms Stacey's death.

But he told the court that at the time he was feeling suicidal and suffering from "diminished responsibility" when he decided the woman would make the ideal "friend in the afterlife".