Trial told of butchery skills of alleged British serial killer

British fugitive John Martin Scripps, suspected of being an

international serial killer, chopped up his victim using butchery skills

he learned in prison.

Scripps, 35, denied the murder of South African tourist Gerard Lowe,

whose remains -- minus the head -- were found in several black plastic

rubbish sacks floating in Singapore harbour.

Using a high-tech giant television screen, pathologist Chao Tzee Cheng

showed the court how Lowe's body had been skilfully cut up after death

by someone with a good knowledge of anatomy or possibly by a person who

had done a similar thing before.

''The person who dismembered this body is knowledgeable, clearly a

very skilful person . . . either a doctor, medical surgeon, veterinary

surgeon or possibly a butcher,'' Chao said.

''When I saw the body, right away I told police we could be dealing

with a serial killer,'' he said.

Prosecutor Jennifer Marie said she would produce more than 20

witnesses during the trial including the man who taught Scripps

butchery.

She said James Quigley, a British prison office caterer, would testify

that ''sometime in 1993, he had taught the accused butchery skills which

the accused had mastered quickly''.

Chao said it was impossible to determine the cause of death because

the head and arms had never been found, but he said it could have been

by a severe blow to the head.

The prosecution then produced a hammer and several knives, found in

Scripps' baggage, which Chao said could have been used to cut up the

body.

If convicted, Scripps faces a mandatory death sentence.

He is alleged to have befriended Lowe, a brewery design engineer from

Johannesburg who arrived on a shopping trip on March 8 at Singapore's

airport, and then checked into a hotel with him to share a room.

Marie told Judge T S Sinnathuray at the High Court that Scripps killed

Lowe in the hotel some time between March 8 and early March 9.

As Marie outlined her case, Scripps, clean-shaven and handcuffed, sat

hunched inside a steel and glass cage in a newly opened courtroom

equipped with a giant television screen to display evidence.

Two policemen flanked him inside the cage and four commandos stood

guard at vantage points outside the courtroom.

After the alleged murder, Scripps flew to Thailand but then returned

to Singapore and was arrested on March 19.

He is also wanted in Thailand, which has since issued arrest warrants

charging him with the murder of two Canadian tourists -- Sheila Damude,

49, a schoolteacher from Victoria, British Columbia, and her son, Darin,

23.

Their dismembered remains were discovered on the island of Phuket in

March. Their passports and some other items were later found in Scripps'

possession after he was arrested in Singapore.

Scripps is also being investigated in connection with unsolved murders

in Mexico and San Francisco. One inquiry links him to the disappearance

of Cambridge graduate Timothy McDowall, 28, and another Briton in

Mexico.

During a break in the proceedings, Scripps' mother and sister were

angered by intrusive photographers and television cameramen. They yanked

at a camera cord and swung their umbrellas to push the journalists away.

Scripps lived in London but his family was from Sandown, Isle of

Wight. He was serving a 13-year sentence in Hertfordshire for heroin

trafficking when he escaped during weekend home leave in October 1994.

Lowe's murder came to light when a torso, thighs severed at the hips,

and legs chopped at the knees were found in black plastic rubbish bags

in Singapore harbour on March 13 and March 16. The head and arms were

never recovered.

Marie, the deputy public prosecutor, said expert witnesses would show

that the body had ''been skilfully disarticulated at the joints''.

She said she also will prove that Scripps used Lowe's credit card and

forged his signature to go ''on a spree of withdrawing monies''.

Edmond Pereira, a top Singapore lawyer appointed by the state to

represent Scripps, has not disclosed what his line of defence will be.

But sources close to the defence said it will try to prove manslaughter,

which is punishable by a maximum of life in prison.

Apparently to pre-empt a possible defence that Scripps killed Lowe to

prevent homosexual advances, the prosecution put Lowe's widow, Vanessa,

on the witness stand. Looking cheerful and well groomed, Mrs Lowe

testified that Lowe, 32, disliked gays.

''We had a healthy sexual life. He was definitely not a homosexual,''

said Mrs Lowe in a written statement that was read out in court while

she sat in the witness chair.--PA.