A POLICE officer told jurors that she spoke with an alleged murder victim just an hour before he suffered fatal head injuries.

PC Sarah King said Luke Woolf seemed “happy-go-lucky” as they chatted near Bevois Valley Road, Southampton.

She was on patrol in the early hours of October 25, 2008, when she saw 18-year-old Mr Woolf.

PC King said: “I had known him for about two to three years and recognised him as he walked towards me.

“I said ‘hello’ to him. He appeared happy. He was polite and we had a conversation. I asked him how he was getting on, where he was living and what he was doing. We spoke for a number of minutes.

“He told me had been living in Radcliffe Road, Northam, but he was sofa surfing, staying with friends wherever he could but he didn’t know where he was staying that night but I don’t think it was causing him any anxiety.”

She told Salisbury Crown Court she did not think Luke had been drinking or had taken drugs. “He seemed happy-go-lucky, the best mood I had seen him in for some time. He was positive and happy. He was in a carefree mood, not upset.”

PC King added she had never seen the teenager in a nasty mood but he struck her as being “naïve and silly.”

She was giving evidence on the sixth day of the trial of Scott Townson, 21, who denies murdering Mr Woolf.

Jurors have heard how the teenager had been asked to leave a Rainbow Project house for homeless young men in Radcliffe Road but had not handed in his keys. He had got back into the property and was preparing for bed in the lounge when he was punched and kicked before being dumped in a nearby park. He died in hospital without regaining consciousness.

Townson, who lived at the house, claims he acted in self-defence after the teenager had attacked him.

Proceeding