A computer engineer employed by an Uxbridge computer company was jailed for life on Friday for battering a Swedish au pair girl to death with a frying pan.

Simon Scott, 31, who worked for Cisco Systems in Stockley Park, smashed 22 year-old Alexandra Carlsson over the head as she slept in bed at his plush Kew Gardens home in June last year.

He strangled her with a mobile phone lead, choked her with his hands and slashed her wrists before tying her ankles, knees and wrists together and slipping her into a sleeping bag which he left in his bedroom, the Old Bailey heard.

Prosecutor Orlando Pownall told the court Scott's cocaine habit, said to cost him up to £600 a week, led to severe mood swings and he began to experience bizarre thoughts before the murder took place.

Ken Macdonald QC, defending, said: 'He still cannot explain the fact of her killing, except that he somehow saw himself in a cartoon.'

When his fiancee left him in May last year, Scott consoled himself with drugs and escort girls, the court heard.

He later met Miss Carlsson, who was working at an escort agency to save money so she could return home.

He offered her £2,500 to leave the agency and she quit within days.

Miss Carlsson arrived at his Kew flat for a drink around 10pm on June 1 and the taxi driver was the last person apart from Scott to see her alive.

A day after the killing, Scott told his ex-girlfriend he had hit the woman with a frying pan because she was going to leave and slashed her wrist to make sure she was dead, Mr Pownall told the court.

Later that day, he packed a rucksack and his passport and tried to flee in his car but sought help at a Twickenham doctor's surgery, saying he could not breathe.

Paramedics said Scott was having a panic attack and took him to hospital.

But police were called and after he spoke about a dead body and said he would have to be institutionalised for the rest of his life. He was arrested after tests showed he did not have a psychosis or paranoia and police found the naked body in his flat.

Jailing Scott, who pleaded guilty to murder, Judge Simon Mettyear told him he had a 'dark side'. He added: 'This case demonstrates the destructive effects of taking drugs, particularly crack cocaine.

'It has ruined your life, and has been partly responsible for ending the life of this innocent woman.'

Cisco Systems refused to comment on the incident.