A childhood friend said he saw “no change” in a man just hours after he killed his lover, a court heard today.

Laszlo Gyarmati, 29, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but denies murdering 25-year-old Hungarian national, Alexandra Kovacs, at her home in Lee Road Mill Hill.

Today, the jury at Central Criminal Court heard a statement from Andras Harangi, who has known the defendant since he was seven-years-old.

The pair lived together in Station Road, Finchley, at the time when Miss Kovacs was killed last July.

In a statement, Mr Harangi, described seeing Mr Gyarmati when he returned home on Thursday, July 19, hours after Miss Laszlo was killed.

He said: “I smiled at him, he smiled back. I assumed he was smiling because he had been with a girl that night.

“I saw no change in him on Thursday. There was no indication that anything out of the ordinary had happened that night.”

Mr Gyarmati told his friend that he had called in sick at work, but Mr Harangi said: “In my opinion, he wasn’t sick at all.”

The trial continues.