A MURDERER who throttled a disabled man with his bare hands was unmasked as a fantasist whose make-believe life was like something out of a spy thriller.

Khorram Azim, aged 34, of Wood Place, Chislehurst Road, Sidcup, has been jailed for life for the murder of Kevin Beckingham, 35.

He had denied killing Mr Beckingham at his home in Nithdale Road, Plumstead, on February 12 last year, using a "death hold" he learned by watching martial arts videos and then stabbing him in the neck.

Mr Beckingham's body was found by a carer on March 7, several weeks after his death.

Several jurors were reduced to tears as Mr Beckingham's mother Brenda gave an impact statement to the court.

She said: "What did Kevin do that was so terrible, it cost him his life?"

Mrs Beckingham described how she had sorted her son's belongings and cleaned his blood off the floor and how she had contemplated suicide.

Mr Beckingham's father Brian and brother Peter also wept as Mrs Beckingham said: "Kevin and I had an understanding as only a mother and son could have.

"We had overcome so many difficulties together, from his being bullied at school to his partial blindness."

She added: "It is so painful and I can hardly bear it.

"I was proud to call him my son and will miss him forever."

An Old Bailey jury heard how Azim lived out a fantasy designed to impress women and friends.

He was a fitness instructor but told people he was a secret government agent, working for MI5 and MI6 and he had "a licence to kill".

The married father-of-one told a friend he had slit Mr Beckingham's throat to finish off what he claimed was a government-sponsored "hit" as part of his mission to infiltrate Muslim areas.

He compared himself to movie spies James Bond and Jason Bourne.

One of his friends, Mukarram Baig, was so taken in by Azim's claims, he handed him £30,000 over a three-year period.

Azim told Mr Baig he needed the cash to fund an MI5 "strike team," protect himself from a hitman and to prevent himself from being "decommissioned".

Mr Baig told the Old Bailey jury: "Decommissioned means you are disposed of; you are no longer required; taken out of the picture, basically by being killed off."

He went on: "It obviously wasn't true, but this was the scenario at the time.

"It sounds absurd, pathetic. But this is the life I had with him."

Mr Baig said he was not the only one to hand over cash to Azim.

Azim also used Baig to practice his "death hold", almost choking him unconscious and taking photographs of the bruising he received.

Giving evidence, Azim then claimed the MI5 story was a cover to protect himself from the Islamic group al-Muhajiroun.

He said he was in fear for his life after refusing to carry out a suicide bombing for the group.

When he was arrested, Azim asked to speak to officers from MI5.

After staging the murder scene at Mr Beckingham's flat, by leaving him lying on the floor with his arm outstretched towards an empty syringe, Azim tried to frame Mr Baig.

Mr Beckingham, who suffered from epilepsy, arthritis, poor eyesight and learning difficulties, was determined not to let his disabilities get him down and hired Azim as a personal trainer after seeing an advert in News Shopper in 1999.

No motive has ever been given for the murder.

Azim admitted perverting the course of justice and was given a 30-month jail sentence to run concurrently.