A PSYCHOLOGIST has said one of the men accused of murdering Natalie Jarvis in Swanley Village is “child-like” and “would find it difficult to say no.”

Dr Caoimhe McAnena, who has been a practising psychologist for 12 years, interviewed 23-year-old Thomas Fuller on March 4 this year.

The prosecution alleges Fuller, of Oakley Drive in Eltham, accompanied Adam Whelehan, also 23, of Roseberry Gardens, Sidcup, when he met Miss Jarvis on the night of October 3 last year.

Maidstone Crown Court has heard how Whelehan drove to a car park in Button Road before getting out with Miss Jarvis at about 10.50pm and "by the time he returned to the car, then driven by Fuller, she lay dead."

Dr McAnena spoke with Fuller for four hours in order to assess his psychological state. Personality and intelligent tests were also carried out.

She told the court: “He is the type of person who would find it difficult to say no, particularly to people he felt emotionally close to or dependent on.

“He would find it hard to stand against their wishes.

“He was polite and appeared to be quite thoughtful with his answers.

“He seemed to be thinking about what he was saying and seemed to make an effort to report things accurately.”

She added Fuller appeared much younger than his age.

She said: “He seemed to be quite an immature person, a bit child-like.

“He said that Whelehan had been an emotional support for him after his father’s death.

“He was the main friend that he would turn to and rely on for emotional support.”

The court previously heard how Fuller’s father died from cancer in June 2011.

Dr McAnena’s results, based on her interview with Fuller and his test scores, were written out in a report and read out to the jury.

She explained the tests measure a person’s intelligence and how their brain functions, the results of which are split into five categories: IQ, verbal communication, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed.

The court heard that in the IQ section Fuller’s result put him in the bottom 18 per cent of the general population. In verbal communication, that is, a person’s ability to speak and communicate with others, Fuller’s score put him in the middle of the general population.

In perceptual reasoning, which involves non-verbal information, Fuller was in the bottom 21 per cent of the population.

Fuller’s working memory results put him in the bottom 23 per cent of the general population.

Finally, Fuller’s processing speed score was his weakest and placed him in the bottom five per cent of the population.

Processing speed measures a person’s ability to take in new information, process it and react.

Dr McAnena added Fuller could mask his low processing speed from others because he was able to communicate better verbally.

She also conducted a test which recorded how suggestible Fuller is to persuasion - the findings said Fuller was no more suggestible than the general population.

However, in a test which aims to discover how compliant a person is to the requests of others, Dr McAnena found Fuller had a “compliant and passive personality” as he achieved the maximum score possible.

She added: “I think the conclusion is that he probably is quite a compliant person and that was based on some of his background history.”

Whelehan has admitted killing Miss Jarvis “in lawful self defence” but the prosecution alleges he murdered the 23-year-old woman, who he had been seeing since the summer, because he “wanted out of the relationship and the only way out he could see was to kill her.”

Miss Jarvis was found dead on the ground in Swanley Village Road after suffering more than 20 stab wounds.

Whelehan and Fuller deny murder.

The trial continues.