A JILTED lover battered and strangled his fiancee in a park and then tried to blame her death on a mystery gang of attackers, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

The court heard how Christopher Levey and Carol Sanderson, originally from County Durham, went for a walk in Crystal Palace Park, south-east London on April 19 this year, although she had broken off their engagement a few weeks earlier.

Dorian Lovell-Pank, prosecuting, said Mr Levey was unhappy that the marriage had been postponed.

He allegedly told a friend: ''I think she is seeing someone else. I have got to get two pills. I want us both dead. I cannot live without her. I have never loved anyone like I love her."

Police found Miss Sanderson in dense shrubland, and Mr Levey was crying nearby.

She died in hospital three days later without regaining consciousness.

Mr Levey allegedly told officers they had gone to the park to make love when a group of black men had suddenly appeared.

He claimed three men had hurled him to the ground and held him, while the others dragged her away into a bush

Mr Levey, 24, from Anerley Road, Anerley, London, denied murdering Miss Sanderson.

Miss Sanderson moved to London from County Durham with her family in 1994.

"The defendant had strong feelings for her, but, in the weeks before her death, it became clear that either she did not want to marry him any more, or wanted to postpone the marriage," said Mr Lovell-Pank.

The case continues.