Drug murder accused 'respectable'

The body of 25-year-old Matthew Demko was found in a garage

A "respectable" former public schoolboy who drifted into the world of drugs was battered to death by another middle-class man, the Old Bailey has heard.

Michael Jordan, 25, of Ashtead, Surrey, denies murdering Matthew Demko, also 25, in a garage last April.

The court was told Mr Jordan had been helping Mr Demko supply recreational drugs to his middle-class friends.

Prosecutor Michael Austin-Smith QC said Mr Jordan killed Mr Demko when pressured into paying a £3,000 debt.

'Fashionable cocaine'

Mr Austin-Smith said: "This is a story about respectable, middle-class people and a brutal death inflicted in respectable, middle-class Surrey by another respectable young man."

He said the defendant and victim "were bound together by the world of what they thought were recreational drugs".

"This was not sordid heroin or crack cocaine, but fashionable cocaine and cannabis."

It was all very discreet and local Michael Austin-Smith QC

Jurors were told Mr Demko began supplying cannabis to friends before graduating to ecstasy and cocaine, which were bought on Thursdays from a source in Fulham, south London.

Mr Demko, who had a respectable job as a supervisor at a grounds management firm, sold the drugs to friends ready for the weekend.

He would collect the money afterwards so he could repeat the process the following week, the court heard.

"It was all very discreet and local," Mr Austin-Smith said.

He said defendant Mr Jordan was "short of money" and was £6,000 in debt at the time of the killing.

But he said Mr Demko demanded Mr Jordan pay his £3,000 share of a cocaine deal.

"Having run out of excuses and having no prospect of raising the money, he killed Matthew to get him off his back," Mr Austin-Smith said.

Mr Demko was found with extensive injuries to his head and face and a ligature wound around his neck in Mr Jordan's garage where the pair met, the court was told.

The case continues.