A court has heard details of the murder of Kilkenny man Adrian Murphy who was killed on June 5 last year.

A couple, Diana Cristea, 18, and Joel Osei, 25, are accused of killing the Irish dancer between May 31 and June 5 last year after his body was discovered in a 17 storey flat in Battersea, south-west London.

The Independent reports that the court heard that the couple allegedly murdered Mr Murphy and poisoned another man with a drug known as “devil’s breath” before using their bank cards to go on a spending spree.

It’s alleged they used Mr Murphy’s details to attempt to purchase $80,000 (€68,130) worth of diamonds from a jeweller in New York.

Cristea and Osei are also accused of poisoning a second man, who can not be named for legal reasons, on May 30, 2019, before stealing £2,000 (€2,190) of his belongings.

25 year-old Joel Osei is accused of administering scopolamine, a motion sickness drug, to Adrian Murphy.

Cristea and Osei allegedly met both men on the hook-up app Grindr.

The court heard that Mr Murphy was staying at his former partner and best friend’s flat when Osei visited him.

Defendant, Joel Osei, was captured on CCTV approaching the building and heading towards the flat when Mr Murphy was staying, the court heard.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said: “As you will readily appreciate, the prosecution’s case is that Joel Osei would have been the last person to see Adrian Murphy alive.”

Osei was then caught on CCTV leaving the building carrying a Louis Vuitton holdall, which contained his banking card and other items which Cristea allegedly attempted to sell online in the days the followed.

Mr Murphy was discovered by his best friend on June 4 lying naked on the bed.

His phone was found in the toilet and a can of Coca-Cola recovered by police was found to have traces of scopolamine.

Osei’s fingerprints were discovered on a bottle of whiskey recovered by police at the flat.

Toxicology reports estimate that the concentration of scopolamine in Mr Murphy’s body was 67 micrograms per litre of blood.

The court heard that in a separate fatal robbery a victim only had 4.8 micrograms of the drug in their system.

Mr Aylett QC said: “In South America, and in particularly in Columbia, it is said to be popular with both robbers and rapists who use it to incapacitate their victims, rendering them deeply unconscious for long periods of time.

“In Colombia, they don’t call it scopolamine, in Columbia they call it ‘the devil’s breath’.”

Mr Aylett said that Osei was later identified by the unnamed second victim.

Analysis of Odei’s laptop and phone found scopolamine in his search history and that an amount was eventually purchased in early May, the court heard.

Mr Aylett said that Odei “accepts” that he visited both Mr Murphy and the second victim, claiming he was working as a male prostitute and engaged in “consensual sexual activity” with both men.

The second victim said he did not take part in any sexual activity and swabs from Mr Murphy show no evidence of sexual activity with Osei.

Diana Cristea has admitted one count of fraud but denies two counts of theft and six other fraud charges.

Osei denies two counts of theft and eight counts of fraud.

Adrian Murphy, who choreographed and produced shows such as ‘Celtic Dance Force’, ‘Feet of Fire’ and ‘FireDance The Show’, was buried next to his parents in his native Kilkenny in July 2019.