Middle-class dealer killed over drug debt

AN ex-public schoolboy was battered to death over an unpaid debt in a middle-class drug ring in Surrey, the Old Bailey heard today.

Matthew Demko and his alleged killer Michael Jordan were "respectable, middle-class people", the jury heard.

They fell out over a £3,000 debt and Mr Demko, 25, was strangled and beaten with a weightlifting iron bar. His body was found in a garage in Ashtead in April last year.

Mr Demko sold cannabis and cocaine to friends and Jordan, 24, helped deliver the drugs and collect money.

Jordan owed Mr Demko £3,000 from this operation and had invented "fatuous excuses" for not paying.

On the day he died Mr Demko had arranged to meet Jordan in the garage to settle the debt. Michael Austin-Smith QC, prosecuting, said: "Having run out of excuses and having no prospect of raising the money, he killed Matthew."

When he was arrested, still covered in blood, Jordan had £700 in an envelope in his waistband. Mr Demko had intended to see his Fulham supplier that evening to buy more drugs.

Jordan, of Ashtead, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The case continues.