The man accused of killing Sally Anne Bowman has a history of sexual violence, his trial at the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

The court heard chef Mark Dixie, 37, was convicted of an attack on a woman in east London and linked to another in Australia.

Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court Sally Anne's murder was not the work of an "opportunistic sex attacker, which is how the defendant characterises himself".

"Dixie was disposed to committing sex crimes in circumstances of violence," Mr Altman said.

Mr Altman said Dixie was convicted of indecent assault and assault occasioning bodily harm on a young female Jehovah's Witness on June 21, 1988.

He said the young woman had been followed in a lift by Dixie.

Dixie started fumbling with himself, "as if trying to release his penis", Mr Altman said, before telling the woman "you're going to have to help me" and "I need it, I need it."

When the woman tried to escape on the ground floor, Dixie punched her in the face.

Ten years to the day later, a Thai student was attacked in Perth, Australia, in the same area where Dixie was then living.

DNA tests link him in a "one in a billion" chance to a sex attack and stabbing in Perth, the prosecutor said.

Mr Altman said the young woman was getting ready for bed when she saw a man wearing a stocking over his head climb in through an open window.

The woman fled to another room and tried to escape but the window was locked.

The man, carrying a brown handled knife, forced his way into the room and demanded money.

"She replied she had not," Mr Altman said.

"He was excited and talking fast. He then told her to take her top off but when she replied please, no', he became angry and approached her."

The woman screamed and tried to kick her attacker but he grabbed her.

"He threw her face down on the floor and then proceeded to stab her in the back," Mr Altman said.

The man then pulled down the woman's pyjama pants and knickers.

"She did not know whether the attacker had intercourse with her because she fell unconscious during the knife attack," Mr Altman said.

But she did tell Western Australian police she had been raped and the clothes were sent for forensic testing.

Mr Altman said tests on semen found on the pyjamas conducted in London last year showed "a one in a billion" match with Dixie.

The trial continues.