A MAN whose battered body was found in a York flat could have been the victim of an attack lasting three-quarters of an hour, according to one of the men accused of his murder.

John William Leslie Wood, 39, denied a suggestion from prosecution barrister James Goss QC that he and two other men set on his former flatmate Peter Robinson like a "small pack of hounds".

He told a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday that he helped tidy up the bedroom where the dead man lay after the attack, while his friend, Paul Darch, cleaned up with a mop.

Wood said he was in a state of panic and had been drinking. Wood claimed the kicking and stamping attack was carried out by Wilfred Barlow alone, over about 45 minutes, while Wood sorted out an argument between Darch and Wood's girlfriend, Karen Bulmer, in the next room.

He claimed he did not know why neighbours to his flat heard banging coming from it for two hours in the early evening on February 28.

He alleged Mr Robinson arrived there at about 10.50pm, shortly before his death.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court have heard evidence that the noise made the building vibrate.

Wood, 39, of Trent House, Margaret Street, York, Barlow, 44, formerly of Bramham Avenue, Chapelfields, York, and Darch, 46, of Horsman Avenue, central York, all deny murder.

Wood alleged that a week earlier, when he evicted Mr Robinson from the flat, Darch had told him: "You are well shot of him - he was nothing but trouble".

Wood denied the suggestion that he had taken off a bloodstained red polo shirt after the attack, and put it in black bin liners with items belonging to Mr Robinson.

He claimed the shirt belonged to the dead man and he had never worn it.

Asked how blood got on the back of his left foot or the bottom of his trousers, he replied that there were pools of blood on the bedroom floor, and he was near when Barlow was kicking Mr Robinson.

The jury heard expert evidence that Wood is right-footed.

The trial continues on Monday.

Updated: 09:45 Saturday, October 15, 2005