NEWPORT, Wales, April 21 (UPI) -- A Welsh man who spent 21 years in prison for murder is on trial for killing a neighbor two years after he was released on parole.
David Cook, 65, admitted to killing Leonard Hill, 64, who lived next door to him in Rhymney, South Wales, The Sun reported. But Cook denies the crime was murder.
The trial opened Friday with a prosecutor telling jurors in Newport Crown Court Hill's killing in 2011 had a "chilling similarity" to the murder of a Sunday school teacher 25 years earlier. Both victims were strangled during a robbery.
Cook's first victim had become friends with him while he was serving an earlier term in prison. He was given a life sentence.
Investigators say Cook hid Hill's body in his home and even had a visit from probation officers while it was there. He confessed two days later.
"I have done something terrible," he told an officer in a phone call. "I have killed my neighbor."
