File picture: PA

A Kidbrooke man will be sentenced today for killing a teenage drug dealer and burying his body under a garden shed.

William Regan, 37, pleaded guilty last month to the manslaughter of 18-year-old Stephen Ojerinola in April last year.

His plea of not guilty to murder was accepted by the prosecution on the eve of a retrial at the Old Bailey.

Another man, Lee Davies, 36, also of Kidbrooke, was cleared of murder by a jury in June but the jury could not decide on a verdict on Regan.

The pair pleaded guilty to preventing a lawful burial and burglary.

Max Hill, QC, prosecuting, said Mr Ojerinola may have first hit Regan over the head with a bat and cut his arm with a knife.

The 10 wounds on Mr Ojerinola may then have been caused in a struggle between the two men.

Mr Ojerinola’s body was found in November last year under layers of gravel, a tarpaulin, wooden boards, rubble, soil, concrete and the newly built shed.

Mr Ojerinola died after suffering a fractured skull and stab wounds.

Mr Hill previously told the trial: “Neighbours started to notice unusual activity, including the delivery of the shed, flat packed on to the roof of a car, and night-time digging in the rear garden that went on into the early hours of the following morning.”

Police searched the house and found traces of blood. Experts then excavated the ground underneath the shed and found his body.

Mr Hill said Mr Ojerinola was a drug dealer and Regan was a drug addict who had recently been involved in a burglary where £10,000 was stolen.