A newlywed accused of battering a man to death after his new wife spent their wedding night with the other man has described how he hit the victim repeatedly with a wooden oar but he denies murder.
Wendy Shobrook fled the flat that she shared with Barry Johnson during the evening of their wedding day after she set fire to the property during an argument, a court has heard.
She is alleged to have spent the night with her friend George Auchterlonie and contacted Johnson the next day, claiming that Auchterlonie had stolen her money.
Today, Johnson told Plymouth crown court that he went to Auchterlonie's home, where Shobrook let him in, and shouted abuse at the victim before throwing a plastic bottle and a glass tumbler at him.
He said Auchterlonie, 45, tried to hit him but he moved, punched him with "full force" in the face and then kicked him in the head as he fell. He later picked up an oar and attacked him with it, striking him over the head once and hitting him twice more on the body until it snapped.
Johnson, 40, told the court: "I picked up an oar, I swung it towards him. His immediate reaction was to cover himself. I hit him, on the head."
The defendant said there was blood "everywhere" from Auchterlonie's nose and, after the oar snapped, he was only stopped from hitting him again when Shobrook, 40, intervened.
But asked by his barrister, Andrew Langdon QC, if he intended to kill Auchterlonie or cause him serious injury, he said: "No."
The court earlier heard that Auchterlonie suffered 38 separate injuries including 14 to the head and neck. He is believed to have died some hours after the attack. His body was not found for three days.
Johnson told the jury that, as he and Shobrook left the flat, Auchterlonie was standing up and holding a mobile phone.
Johnson and Shobrook, from Plymouth, both deny murder. Shobrook has pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether the life of another would be endangered.
The court has previously been told Auchterlonie had been left "to die in a pool of blood". Martin Meeke QC, for the prosecution, said Johnson later bragged to a number of friends that he had "given George a beating" and "taught him a lesson". The jury also heard he boasted of having attacked Auchterlonie for 15 minutes.
The trial continues.
* Crime
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/03/murder-trial-johnson-oar-attack
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