A CONVICTED murderer denied that he started a fight in prison to gain sympathy and better conditions for himself.

Jeremy Green told a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday(mon) he was not the aggressor but the victim who was attacked and beaten up by five Muslim prisoners after leaving a gym in Wakefield Jail on April 21 last year.

He said he believed it was because of his former army service because one of his attackers said “he kills Taliban.”

Green, now 27, who is serving a minimum of 34 years in jail for the murder of one woman and attempted murder of another was being cross-examined by Nawaz Hussain representing Mantu Asiedu, one of his alleged attackers.

He said: “Prior to sentence you were held on the remand wing and you weren’t looking forward to moving into the general prison.”

“No, I wasn’t” agreed Green.

“Given a chance you would like to have remained on the remand wing but that didn’t happen. You were sentenced to 34 years minimum in prison and removed from the comforts of the remand wing into the general prison.”

Mr Hussain said it would be known by other prisoners what he had done to his two victims. “There would be little sympathy for you having killed one woman and tried to murder another.”

Green, who was giving evidence from behind a curtain screening the witness box from the dock, replied: “There is a lot worse than that in Wakefield.”

Mr Hussain suggested Green, having trained at Sandhurst knew how to plan operations, knew the corridor concerned was not covered by a CCTV camera and was trained to fight.

Mr Hussain said Green had blatantly lied when he claimed he had intended to kill himself after the murder and attempted murder of his victims because while those young women were lying in the flat where they were attacked he had sent “over 100 messages” on his phone to other women.

“You had no intention of committing suicide,” said the defence barrister. “That’s just a lie isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not,” said Green.

Mr Hussain suggested the women he messaged thought he was his normal joking self.

After leaving the victims’ flat he agreed he had kept one woman's phone and erased his contact details from it “to cover his back”.

He had also used their cash cards to make withdrawals from their bank accounts before going shopping at Tesco and Morrisons before going home and cleaning himself up.

He had also contacted another girlfriend making plans to go to London.

On trial are Mantu Asiedu, 42, Barrington Denny, 26, Adam Mac, 30, Jewel Uddin, 29, and Shah Rahmin, 22, who each deny causing grievous bodily harm to Green at HMP Wakefield. He suffered a broken nose and cheekbone.

The jury was told all are Muslims, Uddin was convicted in June 2013 of an offence of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, Rahman was convicted of a similar offence in February 2012, Asiedu was convicted in November 2007 of doing an act with an intent to cause an explosion with intent to endanger life or property.

Denny was convicted in December 2011 of murder and Mac in the same month was convicted of three offences of robbery and one of attempted robbery.

Trevor Meegan defending Denny, who Green claims was the first to punch him, suggested rather than attack that Denny had tried to pull other prisoners off him.

The trial continues.