A MAN was jailed for life yesterday for the murder of a homosexual who

tried to pick him up.

The Old Bailey was told that Glasgow-born Edward Hillhouse, 24,

carried out a frenzied attack in which he smashed the man's skull with a

hammer and then stabbed him 12 times.

The body of Malcolm Raywood, 59 -- who had just been released from

prison for sexually assaulting young boys -- was found a week later in a

hostel in the King's Cross area of London.

Prosecutor Mr David Calvert-Smith said that on New Year's Eve in 1991,

Mr Raywood had left the hostel to find a young man for sex.

Hillhouse, who was not homosexual, had agreed to go back to his room.

His intention was to rob Mr Raywood.

Defence counsel Mr Ian MacDonald said: ''It is clear that the

defendant got into some kind of frenzy, whatever may have triggered it

off.''

Judge Kenneth Machin told Hillhouse: ''It was a brutal and savage

killing and you represent a danger to the public.''

Hillhouse, who is unemployed, and was said to have lived at various

addresses in King's Cross, pled guilty to murder and to a separate

assault three weeks later.