A graphic designer who reputedly worked for the Royal Opera House murdered his fiancée in the shower after she told him she was leaving him following her unhappiness at his cross-dressing fetish, a court heard yesterday.

Roderick Deakin-White, 38, bludgeoned Amy Parsons to death with a two-foot long metal bar in their east London apartment, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

Jurors heard the couple's six-year relationship deteriorated with Ms Parsons telling friends she had grown unhappy at Deakin-White's enjoyment of cross-dressing when they were intimate.

Days before she was murdered, Ms Parsons told Deakin-White she had started an affair with James Saunders, a colleague at the City-based insurance firm she worked at.

The court heard Deakin-White reacted by sending a number of disparaging messages to Mr Saunders in which he called him a “bastard” and a “creep”, and also told him “if he couldn't have her no one can”.

Miss Parsons was discovered by police following her death in April

The freelance graphic designer, who had suffered from depression, allegedly relied on his partner for financial support and developed an unhealthy emotional dependency on her, jurors were told.

The pair had drunk four beers and some champagne together on the night of the attack on April 25, according to the prosecution.

Ms Parsons had allegedly told friends she planned to end the relationship that evening before she was repeatedly struck on the head by Deakin-White as she showered.

The court heard how she received a WhatsApp message from Mr Saunders just an hour before CCTV captured Deakin-White leaving the flat following the attack.

Gareth Patterson, prosecuting, said that evidence suggests she remained alive for over thirty minutes as he fled the scene after realising “what he had just done”.

In the hours following the incident, the defendant visited a section of the Thames at Wapping with the intention to commit suicide but returned to the river bank after having second thoughts, the court heard.

He then befriended a house boat owner in Edmonton, north London, who he opened up to about the events, saying “he thought he had killed her”.

Shortly afterwards, he confided in his father over the phone, who immediately called the police after hearing his son describe himself as a “murderer”.

The emergency services were called to the fifth-floor flat on Crowder Street, where they found Ms Parsons lying in a pool of her own blood in the bath.

She was pronounced dead at the scene and a post-mortem examination revealed she had been struck several times with severe force.

Gareth Parsons QC said: “A neighbour heard a woman screaming but did not appreciate what was happening. The blows knocked Amy Parsons down off her feet, no doubt slipping in the wet bath.

“The prosecution case is that it was a brutal attack on a woman who, while she was showering, was obviously unarmed and wholly defenceless, a woman who was entitled to feel safe and secure in her own home.”

Deakin-White pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Amy Parsons at the Old Bailey during a trial in July, but has denied murder.

The prosecution indicated the plea was not accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service and a two week trial was set to start on October 28.

The trial continues.