A DRUG addict accused of murdering a fellow user and dragging and dumping his body on to the side of a city centre road just a week after being released from prison has told a jury he didn’t ever intend to kill.

James Russell took the stand to plead his innocence over his role in the death of Nick Beattie who died after suffering a multitude of injuries including a punctured lung.

Winchester Crown Court has previously heard that the prosecution case alleges Russell unleashed a savage beating on his victim when he saw red, believing he had been shortchanged in his share of drugs that had been prepared by Beattie in a syringe.

But 38-year-old Russell insisted they had both been involved in nothing more than a “wrestling tussle” but he had been “scared” by Mr Beattie who he says fell on top of him during the fracas.

Setting the scene for the jury, Russell told how he had bumped in to Mr Beattie, who he barely knew, late on the morning of March 20 last year and the pair went to a flat in Golden Grove, Southampton, which was the home of a one-legged man called Sid, to take drugs.

Russell told the court he had heroin in his possession, despite being off drugs while in prison until a week earlier, while Mr Beattie had crack cocaine.

Inside the flat, Russell described how he sat on the sofa while Mr Beattie crouched near a wooden table and combined the drugs with cutting agent on a spoon before sharing it between three syringes.

Russell told jurors how he normally smoked drugs and had to seek help to inject himself, but became angry because his share appeared more like “dirty water” than the usually dark brown colour of heroin and he felt it had been watered down.

The court heard Russell describe how an argument ensued between the pair and Russell pushed Mr Beattie with both hands before they both fell backwards on to the sofa.

Russell said: “He landed on top of me in a seated position. He wedged his arm up under my neck. I felt threatened, seriously threatened. I began to struggle.”

The jury heard how Russell then bit Mr Beattie twice because, he claimed, he was trying to stick his thumb in Russell’s’ eye.

Things escalated, the court heard, as Russell admitted delivery “a couple of blows” to “try and take control of the situation”.

He denied ever using his elbow or knees to rain blows, or stamp on Mr Beattie during the episode, which he says lasted between 90 seconds and two minutes before he appeared to stop moving.

Russell described how he tried to find a pulse, but couldn’t be sure, so asked for help from another man called John Fenn while he placed Mr Beattie in the recovery position.

He claimed he managed to get Mr Beattie’s body into the hallway by himself but needed help to get it outside, telling jurors he lifted him under the arms while Mr Fenn grabbed his legs before he was “plonked” on the ground.

He said: “ Not at any point was there any dragging.

The court heard Russell describe how he panicked and ran from the scene, to a day centre where he took a shower and changed his clothes.

Asked if it was his intention to kill or seriously harm Mr Beattie, Russell said: “Of course it wasn’t, definitely not.”

That night he was arrested shortly after 10pm, having spent the evening drinking lager, and was aggressive and threatening to police officers at the scene.

Russell, of no fixed abode, denies murder.

  • RUSSELL was accused of telling a pack of lies under cross examination in court, where he mentioned an injury to his eyeball he claims was caused by Mr Beattie, for the first time.

Prosecutor Charlie Gabb suggested he had made it up, adding that he was “a violent man” with a history of attacking people, with previous convictions for assault and battery.

One of those incidents saw him jailed for 14 months for kicking and punching someone to the head and leaving them with facial injuries.

Russell said he didn’t deny his violent past, blaming “the lifestyle I had led over a number of years” that would get him involved in situations.

Asked why he took Mr Beattie’s body outside on to the street, Russell told the court: “I could have left him there but I felt responsible.”

He told the court that he chose to go back into the Golden Grove area that evening, while police were active in the community, because he “wanted to see what was going on”.

He insisted he “didn’t know what had happened to Nick” for certain which Mr Gabb said was simply his bid to “try and see if (you) could get away with it”.