A MURDER suspect has said he did stamp on a man’s head but thought it would just give him a black eye.

Duncan Hearsey, who is 17 stone, punched, kicked and stamped on 65 year old 5ft 5in and 11 stone Alan Creasey. Giving evidence at his murder trial yesterday the 45-year-old said he had gone to Mr Creasey’s Lancing home believing the older man owed him £40 for a gardening job – having already been thrown out of two pubs and a kebab shop on a drunken bank holiday.

Mr Creasey called the police and Hearsey said he had believed he had been “trying to get him in trouble” by pretending Hearsey was hitting him whilst on the phone. Hearsey told the jury at Lewes Crown Court he left, but then returned, waiting for the police to depart before returning to confront Mr Creasey, who picked up a paint scraper.

Weeping in the witness box Hearsey, of Emerald Quay, Shoreham said: “I felt a bit scared. Something evil was going on with him.

“He slashed the scraper at me. I felt it scrape across my gloved hand. He did it again. Then I hit him with my left hand to the right side of his head. Then I hit him with my with my right, a little bit harder. I didn’t try and punch him as hard as I had but I punched him quite hard.

“He went straight back and hit his head on the ground. I went in to kick him. My foot went across his face and I missed him I believed. I was trying to keep my balance. He was on the ground when I went to kick him. I brought my foot back. In my head and I don’t know if I said it to myself, I thought ‘ give him a stamp, give him a black eye’ for what he had done.

“I did stamp on him, with my left foot. My ankle twisted and scraped down the side of his face. I assume that’s what ripped off his ear. After that I went. I believe that’s what happened.”

Hearsey’s defence barrister Alan Kent QC asked: “When you punched him what were you trying to do?”

“Adrenaline kicked in and he was trying to hit me with the scraper”, Hearsey replied.

“When you stamped on him Did you intend to kill him?” Mr Kent asked.

“No I didn’t,” Hearsey replied.

“Did you intend to cause him really serious harm?, Mr Kent asked.

Hearsey replied: “I didn’t want to get myself in any more trouble than what I was in. I just thought I was going to give him a black eye for what he was doing to me.”

Hearsey denies murder.

The trial continues.

ACCUSED EJECTED FROM TWO PUBS ON TRAGIC NIGHT TROUBLE BEFORE FATAL

DUNCAN Hearsey already had a reputation for trouble when he headed through Lancing on May 29, a court heard.

That evening he was thrown out of two pubs, The Railway and The Farmers, and was involved in another incident in a kebab shop between the two pubs.

The police were called four times in three hours to concerns about Hearsey’s behaviour but each time arrived too late, prosecutors said.

Earlier this week, the jury was told Hearsey had previous altercations with a barmaid and landlord. Farmers barmaid Kirsty Simm said he had threatened on a previous occasion when she tried to bar him to set fire to her home while her eight-year-old son slept. Yesterday he accepted he had probably made the comment.

He said that people in Lancing formed an opinion of him.

He said: “People see the worst in you before you do anything.”

“I have known Kirsty since she was 15. She had gone and teamed up against me, “I wanted to say something to be hurtful back.”

He said he could not remember exactly what he had said to staff and customers in the two pubs that night.