A MURDER suspect told jurors how he defended himself after being attacked in a Southampton hostel in the middle of the night.

Scott Townson said an intruder had punched him and tried to pin him against a wall as he entered the lounge.

“All I wanted to do was get him off me,” he said.

“I didn’t want to kill him or seriously hurt him. I really feared for my safety.”

The 21-year-old denies murdering 18-year-old Luke Woolf.

But he told the court he had drunk 12 pints of lager and cider, taken four lines of cocaine and a couple of Ecstasy tablets and at the time he was on a drug rehabilitation order.

He also admitted having nine previous convictions, including two for battery.

The prosecution claim Townson beat up Luke, who had stripped down to his boxer shorts and T-shirt to go to bed.

Townson is then accused of dragging him across the road and dumping him in a children’s play area. Luke never regained consciousness and died several months later in hospital.

Townson told Salisbury Crown Court he met Luke once after his drug intervention programme worker got him a room at the Radcliffe Road house and had no problem with him.

That night, Townson said he should have been the only person living there, but when he got in about 4am, he discovered the kitchen light on, his chicken satay meal had gone and his clothes were missing from the washing machine.

Hearing a sound, he went to investigate. He told the court: “As I pushed the lounge door, it was flung open.

“Someone came at me, throwing punches. I didn’t know who it was. All I could see was a shadowy figure. One or two of his punches landed on me. I suffered a bit of a swollen lip but that was about it. I managed to push him back. I was throwing punches, I think I made contact three or four times.”

Townson said they fell over a bike and after he got up, he kicked the other man a couple of times. It was not until he turned on the light he realised it was Luke and ordered him to leave.

“He was still conscious and I didn’t think he was seriously injured,” he said.

Townson said he left the house to clear his head and went out to buy a packet of cigarettes.

When he returned, Luke was sitting on the sofa smoking a cigarette.

“He tried to put his trousers on but kept falling over,” he told the jury.

Townson said he helped Luke onto his bike but he fell off on the kerb.

He said: “He was lying in the road. He wasn’t moving. I just panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I pulled him off the road and left him at the entrance to the park. He was making groaning sounds. If I thought he was seriously hurt, I wouldn’t have left him there. I would have called an ambulance.”

Proceeding.