A "homicidal maniac" with a history of sexual violence stabbed the model Sally Anne Bowman seven times in a rape that ended in her murder, the Old Bailey heard today.

Bowman died in the driveway of her home after her boyfriend, Lewis Sprotson, had dropped her off shortly after 4am on Sunday September 25 2005.

The 18-year-old's underwear, white cardigan and Prada handbag had been taken. The rest of her clothes were rolled round her waist, and she was left lying in a pool of blood in front of her home in Blenheim Crescent, Croydon, south London, the court was told.

"Sally Anne's murder was motivated by sex. Her killer murdered her for his own sexual gratification," Brian Altman, prosecuting, said.

He said chef Mark Dixie, 37, claimed to have been under the influence of drink and drugs following his 35th birthday, and had "taken advantage of the situation".

"That, astonishingly, is his defence," he told the court. "It is born out of desperation. There is not a single grain of truth in it."

Altman claimed Dixie, who had lived in Australia for a time, was a man with a history of sexual violence.

In 1988, at the age of 17, he had indecently assaulted and punched a female Jehovah's Witness in London.

Ten years later, a 20-year-old Thai student was stabbed eight times by a sex attacker in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. She had caught a 6ft tall man wearing a black stocking over his head climbing in through her kitchen window.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, lost consciousness during the attack but later told a policeman she had been raped.

Her underwear was analysed in London last year, and a DNA match with Dixie was found, Altman said. He alleged there were "substantial" similarities with the attack on Bowman, including the woman's bag and make-up being taken.

Altman said Dixie's defence was a smokescreen, adding: "Mark Dixie killed Sally Anne with a knife, with which he had deliberately armed himself, and then had sexual intercourse with her. He had set off that night to commit a violent sex attack.

"The idea that in one and the same place there was not only a homicidal maniac who motivelessly stabbed a beautiful young woman to death, but also a sex offender, is a ludicrous claim born of desperation."

Dixie had spent the Saturday celebrating his 35th birthday with friends. He had been drinking and snorting cocaine.

He returned to their flat in Avondale Road, two streets away from Bowman's home.

In the morning, they found him on the sofa, where they had left him at 2.30am, the court heard. He was arrested nine months later at a pub in Horley, Surrey, where he was working and living.

After being taken to a police station and asked whether he had any medical conditions, he said: "I must be mental to do something like that, eh?", Altman told the court.

Among his belongings, police found a camera containing video film of him masturbating and ejaculating onto a newspaper picture of Bowman, it was alleged.

"He was re-iving the sexual acts and indignities ... he was reliving the killing," Altman said. "Sally Anne had been savagely and brutally killed."

She had been stabbed three times in the neck, collapsing through rapid blood loss. Then she was stabbed "savagely" through the abdomen with such force that the knife came out at the other end.

The defendant's DNA was found on Bowman's body, his bloody fingerprint on her shoe and his bite marks on her cheek, neck and right nipple, Altman said.

Her body was found near a skip, and concrete rubble had been placed on her body and in her mouth.

Bowman's mother, father and two of her sisters sat listening to the evidence at the back of the court.

Her mother, Linda, 45, and one of her daughters rushed from the courtroom when jurors were shown horrific pictures of the body after it was found.

The trial was adjourned to tomorrow.