A MAN accused of murder has claimed a key witness in the trial lied to the ambulance service and police.

Dad-of-four Steven Woodhouse died in hospital on Wednesday, June 3, after being fatally stabbed in the heart in his Park Lane, Westcliff, scrapyard the previous afternoon.

Defendants Bradley Johnson, 48, of Penn Road, Slough, and Paul Sultana, 46, of Green Lane, Ilford, both took the stand at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday as they stand trial for the murder and robbery of Mr Woodhouse.

Mr Woodhouse’s pregnant girlfriend, Nikita Simpson, of Park Road, Westcliff, told the police and ambulance service that as he lay collapsed on the pavement outside their home, he told her that a white man and a man described in court as "half-caste" stabbed him.

The prosecution claim these men are Johnson and Sultana respectively, but when Miss Simpson’s statement was put to Johnson, he accused her of lying.

He said: “That is just what she is saying.

“It was not me and it was not Paul Sultana, Mr Woodhouse was not stabbed by either of us.

“She has made it up.”

Karim Khalil QC, prosecuting, challenged Johnson about his claim that Mr Woodhouse came at him with a knife when he encountered the defendant at the rear of his scrapyard.

Blood matching Mr Woodhouse’ was found at the front of the yard, but Johnson had previously told the court that after the pair tussled at the rear of the yard, during which they fell to the floor and Mr Woodhouse may have sustained the fatal stab to the heart, the victim got up and walked out of the yard.

Johnson claims to not have known that Mr Woodhouse was injured in any way, and did not know how the blood appeared at the front of the yard, even though witness Hebe Green, of Park Road, previously described seeing a “scrum” at the front of the yard.

He said: “I don’t know how it got there.

“It’s a scrapyard, he might have cut himself months ago when unloading the van.”

STEALING CANNABIS PLANTS

LAWYERS for Paul Sultana, 46, of Green Lane, Ilford, said he was in a warehouse at the rear of the scrapyard, stealing cannabis plants, as the alleged tussle played out.

Representing Sultana, Michael Levy QC, called his client to the stand and asked him about the events of June 2.

Sultana said: “I was not aware that someone had been injured, I was not aware that Johnson had encountered someone in the yard.

“I did not hear anything when I was in the cannabis tent.

“When I entered the yard there was no-one in there so I went straight in and into the warehouse.

“I did not want to confront anybody.

“I was in the tent and then Johnson came into me saying ‘come on, come on, quick, we have to get out of here – he was agitated.”

Sultana’s £860 padded jacket was seen on CCTV to be damaged as the pair left Park Lane in Bradley Johnson’s car.

The prosecution claim the damage occurred in the process of an altercation between Johnson, Sultana and Steven Woodhouse, but the 46- year-old disputes that.

The trial continues.