A DISTURBING call by a man who raped and murdered his best friend’s girlfriend minutes before was played in court at her inquest.

John Wright, 32, offered to walk Janine Bowater, 25, home after she finished an evening’s work at a pub.

Mr Wright had posed as a trusted chaperone when he offered to walk Ms Bowater safely home from her late shift as a barmaid at the King’s Head pub in Thatcham in southern England.

But along the way he attacked her, The Sun reports.

Mr Wright knocked the young woman unconscious before biting her neck, raping her, strangling her and dumping her body behind some wheelie bins in a garage block.

Police had raced to the spot in Berkshire on December 12, 2017 after an emergency services operator took a call from Mr Wright, in which the man confessed to the crime.

The last available CCTV footage showed the pair walking together towards Ms Bowater’s home, but she never arrived.

Then, at 2.05am, an emergency services operator took a chilling call from Mr Wright.

He said: “I’ve just killed someone in Thatcham. I murdered her.

“She’s dead — I couldn’t help it. It’s my best friend’s girlfriend.

“I strangled her. I don’t know why I did it.

“It’s f***ing stupid. I know I’m going away for a long time. I know that.

“I’ve had a lot of alcohol in the last four days. I’ve lost my job.

“I won’t put up any fight against the officers, don’t worry about that.”

Mr Wright was arrested over the murder, but just after midnight on December 15, only hours before he was due to appear in court on a murder charge, guards found him hanging in his hospital wing cell.

Coroner Peter Bedford recorded that Mr Wright unlawfully killed Ms Bowater.

“The evidence is overwhelming and I fully endorse and adopt the conclusion of the police that it’s difficult to see how a jury would not have convicted Mr Wright of murdering Janine,” he said.