Two men accused of murder after a scantily clad body was found dumped in a stairwell at a block of flats have denied causing his death.

Neil Taylor claimed he punched homeless James O'Rourke once and kicked him during a row over stealing drugs, but denied inflicting any serious injury.

He denied he went berserk out of "pent-up animosity" and said it was one of his co-accused, Daniel Fox, who “went on a bit of a mad one” and “sawed” at Mr O’Rourke’s bare chest with a kitchen knife.

Taylor, 36, admitted he panicked when he realised the friend had died and helped to move his body to the stairwell in a shopping trolley at Caulkers House in Chatham.

Fox, 35, claimed in evidence at a retrial at Maidstone Crown Court that he hit Mr O’Rourke in self-defence before binding his wrists, thighs and ankles with twine.

But he maintained Mr O'Rourke was alive - either asleep or unconscious - when he last saw him.

Asked whether he, Taylor and Caroline Rushworth, 35, had together overpowered him, Fox replied: “That’s a hard one to say. You make it sound like a pack of dogs on a kitten but it wasn’t like that.

"It happened in a blink of an eye.”

The victim, 29, suffered multiple injuries while visiting Rushworth’s sixth-floor flat.

He was left face down, wearing just his boxer shorts, in the stairwell between the fourth and fifth floors at about 7.20am on August 28 last year.

The jury was told he had 27 separate injuries, including a knife wound down his chest and abdomen, damaged testicles, fractured ribs and wound to his face consistent with being struck with the base of an electric sander.

He went to the flat two days before his body was found where he and the other three drank alcohol and took both prescription and illegal drugs.

Violence broke out when Mr O’Rourke was accused of taking Rushworth’s heroin and crack cocaine, which had been “cooked up” by Fox and Taylor and left in a syringe for her.

The prosecution alleged the three tortured him and left him dying on the kitchen floor.

Rushworth told police she was in her bedroom when Mr O’Rourke was attacked.

But Fox claimed he saw her stamp on the victim’s head. He said he awoke from a drink and drugs stupor to see Taylor and Rushworth rowing with Mr O’Rourke in the hallway about the missing drugs.

Rushworth, he said, “screeched in anger” as the other two punched each other. Fox said he grabbed Mr O’Rourke by his collar and dragged him into the kitchen, where he fell on the floor.

Mr O’Rourke then came at him, so he struck him in self-defence, causing him to fall back to the floor and strike his head.

Fox admitted he was “stupid” to tie him up, but said he did it because he feared being attacked.

"You make it sound like a pack of dogs on a kitten but it wasn't like that" - Daniel Fox

He added he never thought it would end in death.

“I’m guilty of tying him up and I shouldn’t have done that, and I did hit him in self-defence because the man came at me,” he said.

“But when I left that flat that morning, he was alive. He had been hit, he had been drinking and taking a lot of drugs, but when I left him he was breathing.

“I even checked him because I recall Caroline being worried. I remember going down and listening and I remember watching his chest rise up and down.

“I didn’t kick him. I nudged him and he made a bit of a noise. That was my indication he was alive, and I left and carried on my way.

"I really didn’t believe it was this bad.”

Fox left the flat at 8.30am on Sunday, August 27, and never returned.

Taylor claimed Fox “went on a bit of a mad one” by repeatedly stamping on the pal’s face and body, and then “sawing” at his bare chest.

Taylor said Rushworth had been in her bedroom and was crying when she saw Mr O’Rourke bleeding and unconscious on the floor.

She wanted to call for an ambulance, but Taylor said he told her they would all “get nicked”.

He said he did not think Mr O’Rourke was in a bad way and believed he would eventually wake up.

After Fox left, Rushworth was said to have cut the twine off with scissors. Taylor and Rushworth also left the flat for hours.

At about 4am on Sunday, August 28, Taylor said he realised Mr O’Rourke was dead.

He wept as he described using a shopping trolley in Rushworth’s flat to move the body, saying: "I just panicked.

“I was scared and didn’t know whether to ring the ambulance.

"I said to Caroline about putting him on the stairs but she said ‘No, don’t do that’.

"I just panicked...I was scared and didn't know whether to ring the ambulance" - Neil Taylor

“We had a bit of an argument about that. I snatched the keys off her, went back in, got the trolley and I picked him up.

“He was heavy. I put him in the trolley. I just wanted to put him in the stairs so he could be found.

“I just didn’t want him to be found in the flat because I was scared Caroline was going to lose her flat and we were going to get nicked for something we hadn’t even done.”

The body was found by other residents. He denied failing to call 999 because he had something to hide.

He also denied throwing the knife down a rubbish chute.

David Hislop, QC for Fox, told Taylor: “You went berserk, beat him while Daniel Fox was there, carried on after he left, and it was you and her (Rushworth) who killed him.”

Taylor replied: “No, you have got it completely wrong.”

Rushworth denied in evidence she attacked Mr O’Rourke in “a desperate rage” for drugs.

She maintained she had not stamped on his head and face or kicked him in the testicles.

Rushworth admitted she was disappointed with the victim and said she was “having a hissy fit” over him taking her fix of heroin and crack cocaine.

But she said her anger was directed at Taylor for leaving the drugs out.

It was, she said, “like putting sweets in front of a child”.

She denied, however, she was out of control and attacked Mr O’Rourke.

“I was out of my head and upset but not enough to be violent,” she said.

“I know I have acted very stupidly, but I haven’t killed anybody.”

Rushworth told jurors that when she awoke at about 8am on Sunday, August 27, she found Mr O’Rourke injured, lying on his back on her kitchen floor.

His thighs and ankles were tied up with twine.

“I know it sounds horrible but it was normal for people to be bashed up or on the floor,” she said.

“If it hadn’t have been for the string, it wouldn’t have been anything untoward.”

She said she wanted to call an ambulance but was told not to by Fox and Taylor.

“I honestly thought he was alright, in my drugged-up state,” she added.

"I know it sounds horrible but it was normal for people to be bashed up or on the floor" - Caroline Rushworth

She said she cut him free with scissors and made him comfortable by placing a towel under his head and a sheet over his body.

All three defendants left the flat.

Rushworth said she returned alone a few hours later but was “absolutely comatosed” and did not pay any attention to her injured friend.

“I was out of my head and it just wasn’t strange for him to be asleep on my floor,” she said.

“I didn’t give it much thought.”

It was not until 4am the following she said she realised her friend had died. Taylor then suggested moving the body.

“I was upset,” she continued.

“There was a dead body in my house, my friend.

"Neil was getting panicky and wanted to move him outside. I was a little bit hysterical.”

It was not unusual when addicts died from overdoses, she explained, for people to move bodies in case they lost their homes.

She claimed Mr O’Rourke’s blood was on her trainers and jogging bottoms from her mopping up a patch of blood left on the floor.

She called the emergency services at 7.44am.

Rushworth denied there was a devious attempt to cover her tracks, or that Taylor attacked Mr O’Rourke with a knife and sander.

She and Taylor were arrested outside the flats shortly after the body was found.

In police body-worn camera footage played in court she was heard saying: “It has nothing to do with me.”

Admitting it was a lie, she said: “Of course it had something to do with me. He was in my flat. I’m ashamed when I see that footage but yes, I was lying.

“I didn’t lie about not being a murderer though. That bit was true.”

Rushworth and Taylor, both of Caulkers House, Shipwrights Avenue, Chatham, and Fox, of no fixed address, deny murder.

The trial continues.