But Dixie, 37, who lived in the West Australian capital during the 1990s, said he found the corpse after a drink and drugs binge and did not realise she was dead until after having sex with it. He said he left the flat of a friend nearby about 4.30am that day to buy more cocaine when he saw a pair of legs in front of the house in Blenheim Crescent, Croydon.

Asked what he thought, Dixie said: "I have gone over it during the last three years. I don't know what went through my mind. "I crouched down from behind where the legs were. I took full advantage of someone and I should not have done it. "All I saw was was a pair of legs, naked genitalia, shirt put down to the waist and I took advantage of her."

His counsel Anthony Glass, QC, asked: "Do you mean you had sexual intercourse with her?" Dixie: "Yes."

Mr Glass: "Did you thinks she was was dead or unconscious?" Dixie: "I would not have expected to see anyone dead in that street. I thought she might have passed out or fallen over." He said there was no reaction during the sex attack, even when he bit her.

He added: "I did maybe think she would wake up not realising what went on the night before." Mr Glass: "Did you, in fact, realise she was dead?"

Dixie: "After a while." He said: "I panicked. I stood up. I looked at her. I did not know what to do." Dixie said he realised he would have to cover up his DNA and placed cement dust and concrete from a skip on the body.

He said he then ran back to the friend's flat at 4.55am. Bowman, who was then working as a hairdresser and part-time model, was discovered about two hours later by a neighbour who saw her legs sticking out.

Bowman's mother, Linda, sat in tears a few metres away in court today and later left the court as Dixie continued his evidence. Dixie, of no fixed address, denies murdering Bowman. In a court session yesterday, the jury heard that in June 1998 Dixie allegedly raped and stabbed a 19 year-old Asian girl in Perth.

The woman, now 30, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had earlier given evidence today, saying she was stabbed and sexually assaulted in Australia 10 years ago by Dixie - a claim he denied despite his DNA being found on her body. He told the jury he spent several years in Australia, earning excellent money as a pub chef, which helped him pay prostitutes twice a week.

Asked how DNA was found on the then-student's body, Dixie told the jury: "The only explanation I can give is either I picked her up or she was a working girl. "I did not stab or rape her." Agencies