A MURDER accused torched a war hero’s corpse then bludgeoned it with a mallet to try to make it “crumble to ashes and disappear”.

Jack Crawley, 20, told a court he drove to woods and set Paul Taylor’s body alight with “charcoal and petrol” after killing him.

He then pounded the remains with a hammer before hiding them in undergrowth and fleeing in the dad of two’s motor.

Crawley told a jury he met the married Army veteran, of Annan, Dumfries-shire, on October 17, 2023, on a remote country lane after they hooked up on gay dating app Grindr.

He planned to steal his car but, he told Carlisle Crown Court, Mr Taylor arrived expecting a sexual encounter.

Crawley said he punched Mr Taylor twice and he fell to the ground where he lay making “snorting noises”.

Crawley, who admits manslaughter but denies murder, said: “I knelt down beside him.

“There was blood on my hands. I couldn’t find a pulse.”

He said he then put the body in the boot of Mr Taylor’s motor and drove to the town’s Finglandrigg Wood.

Mr Taylor’s widow, Maria, looked on as Crawley told the trial: “I wanted rid of the body.

“I set it on fire. I thought that if I hit his body it would turn to ashes and disappear.

“I thought it would crumble.”

Of the botched disposal bid, he added: “I couldn’t stand the smell any more. I kept being sick and passing out.”

Crawley claimed he then dragged the corpse into a bushy area and covered it with sticks.

He said he then got into Mr Taylor’s car, smoked some cannabis and slept before later trying to flog the vehicle.

Crawley told jurors he had become a drug dealer at 13 and stole motors for a local crime gang. Asked by barrister Toby Hebworth KC if he “intended to kill” Mr Taylor, he replied: “No.”

Marcus Goodfellow, 20, denies assisting an offender by helping to dispose of Mr Taylor’s car.

The trial continues.