A Charlton 23-year-old strangled a deaf man using the cord of a steam iron before jumping out of a first floor window with the victim's iPad, a court heard today (March 19).

Soufiane Essabri, of Rathmore Road, allegedly stabbed and battered 30-year-old Latvian Andrejs Ivanovs during "an extraordinarily violent outburst".

Neighbours called police after hearing screaming, gasping and banging noises coming from the victim's flat in Kennington.

When police knocked on the door, Essabri was seen escaping out of the window and fleeing across the car park leaving a trail of blood, it is claimed.
 
Prosecutor Simon Denison told the Old Bailey: "What caused the outbreak of the extraordinarily violent outburst that evening is not known.

"Andrejs' iPad was obviously very important to him as a means of communication, particularly with him being profoundly death.

"Whether the defendant killed him in order to steal his iPad from him or whether he had the presence to put it into his bag with the box and charger afterwards, we don't know."

The court heard Mr Ivanovs, who worked at McDonalds in Elephant and Castle, could only fully communicate using sign language and lip reading, using text messages to talk to his friends.
 
On December 9 2012 Mr Ivanovs and Essabri, his former roommate, arranged by text to meet at the victim's flat at around 3.30pm, it is claimed. But that evening police were called after neighbours heard screams.
 
Essabri allegedly jumped out of the window before running off and clambering over a fence, leaving it stained with his own blood.

Mr Ivanovs had suffered multiple stab wounds to his face, neck, chest and back, and deep bruising to his head.

The bones in his neck had been fractured and the cord of the iron was still wrapped around his neck.

Mr Denison said: "He had been beaten, he had been stabbed and he had been strangled. His death was caused by strangulation, compression of the neck."

Essabri denies murder and claims he was acting in self defence.
 
The trial continues.