AN ALLEGED robber told a jury he is a “loveable rogue” and a “hero” who was trying to stop someone he regarded as the “scum of the earth” from being badly injured.

William Edward Howgego claimed Darren George Linsdell, 32, and Storm Amber Elliott, 20, were “horrible people” who mugged drug dealers and drug users.

He claimed he wanted to warn the alleged victim they were going to rob him.

But he didn’t get to him before the other two attacked him at the entrance to his flat.

“I knew what he was going to sustain, I knew he was disabled, I wasn’t having that. I was being a hero,” he alleged giving, evidence at York Crown Court.

The court heard the claim that when Linsdell threatened the alleged victim with a carving knife, Howgego said he managed to disarm him. After the other two fled with money Elliott had taken from the man’s pocket, Howgego said he stayed to calm the man down before following the other two.

Earlier the alleged victim had claimed Howgego “bounced” his door into his back and held him down and denied that Howgego had stayed behind after the others left.

Howgego, 37, of Wycliffe Avenue, Tang Hall, denies robbery.

The jury heard he has previous convictions for carrying knives and offensive weapons in public, wounding someone’s head with a glass in a pub, supplying heroin, pointing a crossbow through a car window, affray, public order offences, theft, drink driving and being drunk and disorderly.

“I’m a loveable rogue, fighting and drinking,” he claimed.

In cross-examination, he denied he was playing down his offences by claiming he had not pointed the crossbow through the car window and the heroin supplies were doing someone a favour. He claimed he thought the alleged victim was a drug dealer, and drug dealers were the “scum of the earth” who deserved all they got.

The jury has seen CCTV of him spending time with Linsdell and Elliott outside the One Stop Shop in Walmgate immediately before the robbery.

Earlier, the alleged victim had denied being a drug dealer. The jury heard he has previous drug convictions.

The trial continues.