A MAN told a jury he never assaulted Sam Wilson in any way on the night the 21-year-old was run over by a taxi as he lay in the road.

Linden Lee Smith said he was involved in a scuffle with Mr Wilson’s friend Henry Smith in Haxby Road in the early hours of October 11 last year, but then cycled away.

He told Leeds Crown Court yesterday he was shocked and scared by that incident “and I just wanted to get out of there”.

As he was getting on his bike he could see his two co-accused, Jack Alexander and Robbie McHale, were still in the middle of the road with Mr Wilson, and two girls were trying to separate them.

After he cycled away he looked back and saw Mr Wilson, who was wearing a white jacket, was laid out on the floor. Seconds later he heard a screech and the sound of a car hitting something but did not go back.

“I was scared. I didn’t want to be involved. I carried on riding,” he said. Initially, he was on his own but then the other two caught up.

Jason Pitter QC, defending Linden Smith, asked him: “Were you at any stage involved in an attack on Sam Wilson?”

“No,” he replied. “Did you hit Sam Wilson?” asked Mr Pitter. “No”, he replied.

Smith, 20 of Kirkham Avenue, Bell Farm, Alexander, 21, of Fox Covert, Huntington, and McHale, 20 of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall, all York, each deny the manslaughter of Mr Wilson.

The prosecution claim the attack was a joint enterprise which left Mr Wilson unconscious in the road, contributing to his death when the taxi ran over him.

The trio also deny an assault causing actual bodily harm to Henry Smith.

Linden Smith told the jury that on the evening of October 10 he drank three or four “green frogs”, which are WKD with a shot of vodka, at the Castle Howard Ox.

He then tagged along with his co-accused and two girls, Jess Moynihan and Courtney Conlon, to go on to a party in New Earswick.

They had four bikes and Ms Conlon sat on the handlebars of one as they went along. He told the jury his bike had a puncture which made him slower.

As he approached the hump bridge in Haxby Road, McHale was ahead and he saw he was off his bike and exchanging words with Sam Wilson and Henry Smith.

Linden Smith said he put down his bike and went over behind McHale because the two other males were walking towards him and appeared aggressive.

He said McHale squared up to Mr Wilson while he was facing Henry Smith who asked: “Who the **** do you think you are?”

He told the jury he felt nervous and unsafe and told him his name was Linden and he did not know him, hoping it would calm down.

He claimed Mr Smith then grabbed him in the high chest area and dragged him across the road as they scuffled with each other. He did not know if he hit the other man but was then forced to his knees on the ground.

Suddenly Mr Smith let go of him and ran off. “I believe someone helped me.”

That was when he jumped back on his bike and left, he said.

Mr Pitter said it was suggested he had put his forehead to Mr Smith’s at the start of the incident.

“I didn’t do it,” he replied.

“It’s also suggested that you, during the course of this incident, held him down at one stage and was hitting him. Did you do that?” asked Mr Pitter.

“No, not at all,” replied the defendant who said he did not think he would have been capable of holding Henry Smith down.

The jury has heard Sam Wilson died from an unsurvivable head injury.

Pathologist Mark Egan said that included a depressed fracture and a hinge fracture of the skull and other facial fractures.

Under cross-examination Mr Egan accepted the hinge fracture could have occurred when the taxi was reversed after the initial impact but said it was his preferred view that the skull fractures were from the first impact.

The trial continues.