A prisoner has claimed a woman confessed to her several times that she had committed a murder, a court heard.

The inmate said Allison Tomlin told her she had killed a man she thought was a paedophile.

The woman was serving a sentence at Bronzefield Prison in Ashford, Surrey, for breaching a non-molestation order, while 49-year-old Tomlin was on remand.

The mother-of-two, of no fixed address, and former bodybuilder John Barham, 26, of Quarry Road, Maidstone, are jointly accused of murdering 69-year-old John Birney.

His decomposing body was discovered at his ground-floor flat in Rocky Hill Terrace, Rocky Hill, Maidstone, on June 8 last year. He had not been seen since May 30.

He was covered with a curtain on a sofa bed. One of his hands was tied with a belt which came from Tomlin’s coat. Two knives were on the floor next to him.

A postmortem revealed he had 10 stab wounds, including one to the back of his head and others close to his neck. One of his eyes was missing.

The jury retired today to consider verdicts.

The inmate, 38, reluctantly gave evidence at Maidstone Crown Court about the alleged cell confession by Tomlin.

She wept as she said: “The reason she was there was murder. She didn’t say the name of the man who got killed. She said he was a paedophile. There was no emotion.

“We were talking about the trial, about certain things that happened.”

She told Barham’s QC, Richard Barraclough, as he questioned her: “You are putting me in an awkward position.”

But she continued: “She said about the knife. She said her prints were on it. Her words were ‘that knife that got used’.”

Asked who used the knife, the woman said: “I can’t go any further. I am not saying any more. I didn’t want to be involved in this.”

Asked if it would help her to see what she told her solicitor, she replied: “Please don’t use that. I just want to keep my head down and get out.”

The inmate claimed Tomlin confessed to murder to others as well as her.

When reluctant to give details, Barham’s QC, Richard Barraclough, told her: “I am going to be blunt with you. You said to the solicitor she had committed the murder of an old man she thought was a paedophile.”

The woman replied: “I didn’t know he was an old man. I didn’t say that.”

The QC continued: “You said she stated she killed a paedophile and the police could put her where this happened.

“She made herself a sandwich in the kitchen and left her fingerprints on the knife. She continued she stabbed a paedophile. You said you would not give evidence against her.”

While on trial, Tomlin had a black eye and she said she had been assaulted by Barham.

The woman continued: “None of us knew the connection between Tomlin and Barham.”

She said in response to a suggestion she did not want to go to court to give evidence: “Would you?”