A Brisbane man who repeatedly choked, punched and kicked a woman before dumping her body in a park used her hair to decorate a tree "like a Christmas tree".
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Alex Reuben McEwan is on trial for the murder of Korean woman Eunji Ban in Brisbane's CBD in November, 2013.
McEwan told a Brisbane Supreme Court jury on Thursday he could not recall going with friends to a driving range or returning to his Spring Hill unit to drink in the hours before her death.
What he says he does remember is seeing a person's silhouette while roaming the streets surrounding Wickham Park, near Ms Ban's Roma Street Parklands unit.
"I began choking her, punching her and kicking her," McEwan told the court.
"She was dead on the side of the road. I dragged her across the road, up the stairs and put her under a tree."
He says he was bewitched by a demon named Jazzy when he killed the woman and noticed strands of her hair caught in his hands after dumping her next to a tree.
"I decorated the tree I put her under with that, like it was a Christmas tree," he said.
McEwan's lawyer has argued his client's schizophrenia stopped him from being able to control his actions.
He has pleaded not guilty to Ms Ban's murder but admits her manslaughter.
Crown prosecutor David Meredith has suggested McEwan exaggerated his psychosis to avoid responsibility for Ms Ban's death and to spare his mother the distress of knowing her son is a murderer.
Mr Meredith said McEwan's admitted attempts to cover up the killing by moving and lying next to her body to give the impression to passing motorists the pair were drunk showed he was aware of what he had done.
Psychiatrist Olav Nielssen told the court the accused's treatment-resistant schizophrenia would have caused his actions and not the "evil intentions" Mr Meredith described.
"The only two explanations here are he's just a grossly sadistic psychopath or he's affected by symptoms of a psychotic illness," Dr Nielssen said.
"Five psychiatrists know he's got a psychotic illness."
The jury heard McEwan's trial last year was abandoned because he began hitting himself in the head, claiming he did so after Jazzy the demon told him to attack Mr Meredith.
McEwan has described the supernatural being as having "horse-like legs, hooves and a hairy human torso ... normal hands with claws and a goat's head with horns and sharp teeth".
The trial continues.
Australian Associated Press
