A POLISH man accused of murdering gay pensioner Edward Highwood made a desperate 999 call for help just days before the killing.

Homeless Marcin Orlowski, aged 20, called the emergency services on July 14 last year while sleeping rough near Trafalgar Square.

He told jurors he had been drinking and sleeping in a rolled up carpet in a small park near the famous landmark, before making the “desperate” call.

Defence lawyer Nigel Lithman read out a transcript of the conversation which took place in the early hours of the morning.

Orlowski told an interpreter: "A few years ago I was arrested in Poland because of fraud and theft.

“But afterwards I had a suspended sentence and I was told that this sentence is no longer suspended and I should be in prison for about three years.

“When I heard about it I just ran away (to England), and now I don't really want to run away.

“I just want to be arrested and I am not sure but maybe now the Polish police will not really want me anymore – but I just want to confirm this.”

Later in the conversation Orlowski said: “I was going to this store and that store and they were giving me food for free, but when they stopped doing that I went to church and they cannot help me either.

“I am so desperate. I don't know what to do.”

Orlowski, who has previous Polish convictions for two robberies, eight burglaries and two thefts, denies murdering 79-year-old Mr Highwood in Hollymount Close, Blackheath, on July 17 last year.

He claims his responsibility for the killing was “substantially impaired” by his chronic alcoholism.

Today he told the Old Bailey he was a heavy drinker from the age of 13 and had been sacked from numerous jobs in Poland and England for being drunk.

He also claims he was provoked into hitting Mr Highwood with a glass vase because of his unwanted sexual advances.

The trial continues.