A man accused of murdering a man he met on a gay dating app, breaking up his body with a hammer before setting it on fire and dumping it in the woods, vomited in court as he listened to forensic evidence.

Jack Crawley, 20, admits to the manslaughter of Annan man Paul Taylor, 56, but denies his murder.

At Carlisle Crown Court this week he said he met the army veteran on the gay dating app Grindr, which Taylor was using as a platform to sell drugs.

Crawley said his relationship with the deceased became sexual and they had several encounters over the course of three years.

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The accused said he had drug debts he was looking to pay, so attempted to steal Taylor's car from a street in Carlisle.

After being confronted, Crawley said that he punched the deceased in the face after which "he fell, sort of tripped over his own feet and fell into the side of the car, then bounced onto the concrete".

Crawley said he noticed blood on the floor when he knelt beside the victim, and deduced that he did not have a pulse.

He admitted that he should have called the police or ambulance but "panicked" and put the body in the boot of the car.

Crawley said his first instinct was to dump the body in the sea but he couldn't find his way there.

After smoking cannabis at home he ended up at Finglandrigg Woods where he attempted to burn Taylor's body using petrol and charcoal.

When the fire didn't work he attempted to break up the body with a mallet.

Crwaley said: "It didn't work, I couldn't stand the smell anymore, I kept being sick,  I kept passing in and out of consciousness."

For the prosecution, Home Office pathologist Dr Matthew Cieka described the state of the body when it was found seven months after the 56-year-old's death.

He testified that "there had been a minimum of 10 blows" to the head from a "blunt weapon" and that "possible defensive injuries to the elbow indicate that the deceased was conscious for at least part of the attack".

Dr Cieka detailed fracturing to the cheekbone, jaw, eye socket, eyebrow ridge, elbow, hand, leg, ribs, spine, shoulder blade and foot as well as burned bones.

As he gave evidence, Crawley vomited in the dock.

Anthropologist Linda Ainscough concurred there had been at least 10 "forcible impacts" to the skull, which had to be reconstructed.

The trial continues.