A SOUTHAMPTON man today denied murdering Majella Lynch claiming he had acted “the hero” to help a woman in distress.

Daniel McBride, 44 today, told a jury he was walking home from a night out when he heard an upset woman in her basement flat.

He then met Ms Lynch who was complaining of stomach pain and he chatted to her in the early hours of April 18 last year.

The trial has heard that Ms Lynch died following a “sadistic and brutal act” with a shampoo bottle.

Questioned by Oba Nsugbe QC, defending, as to whether he attacked Ms Lynch, McBride said: “No, I was there helping her. I didn’t feel I was intruding. I never touched a hair on her head.”

Ms Lynch, 51, of St Mary’s Road, suffered severe internal injuries when the shampoo bottle was inserted into her. She died of an infection after an emergency operation at Southampton General Hospital, the trial heard.

The seven-man and five-woman jury heard that McBride and his girlfriend Chanelle Lendon, 22, had just moved into a flat on St Deny’s Road. They had watched porn together and had sex, the jury heard.

But the couple had argued and that evening McBride had gone drinking in the city centre with friends Kieran Beavan and Mitchell Cornforth, a door supervisor.

Wearing an open-necked white Ralph Lauren shirt and black trousers, McBride told the jury that he had drunk about five-seven pints, two Jagerbombs and taken several lines of cocaine.

The friends had gone to Yates’s Wine Lodge, Myth and Café Parfait, all in Southampton city centre, until around 3.30am. He said he was in a good mood.

Then McBride said he had walked home through St Mary’s. “As I’m walking down a path I hear a noise like a cat, a distress noise. Then I hear a cry for help, someone asking for help.”

He saw the noise came from a flat and he saw Ms Lynch inside. “I asked if she was OK and she puts her hands to her belly and says she has a sore tummy. She is emotional and upset.

“ I asked the lady if she wants help. She says about her stomach and says she had an argument, something about people trying to steal her things and a can of lager had been thrown at her belly.

“I asked if she wanted an ambulance. She said no. She was upset and emotionally stressed.

“Because I had had a drink I thought I would be a hero."

He said he was still texting a woman called Deborah Burgess he had met in Yates earlier that evening, hoping she might invite him over to have sex.

McBride said he had more lines of cocaine and fell asleep in Ms Lynch’s flat for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Proceeding