AN alleged strangler has denied being violent towards a man whose dead body was found in his flat with a pair of pyjama bottoms round his neck.

Curtis Turpin, 35, claimed that he was “shocked” when he saw his friend Adam Hudson, 41, “jab” Francis McNally, 35, with a vacuum cleaner and that he didn’t see any blood or injury on Mr McNally.

He claimed he was in another room and asleep when his visitor was fatally injured.

“Things went on whilst I was out. Things obviously went on,” he alleged. “I have no memory of it.”

Later he said: “I didn’t kill and I didn’t play any part in it.”

The prosecution allege that Turpin had throttled a man without killing him in a separate incident. The jury has heard that Turpin has two previous convictions involving squeezing or grabbing people’s necks.

“I don’t go around strangling people,” alleged Turpin. 

He alleged he wasn't a fighter so he had to "restrain" people instead in violent situations. 

Turpin and Hudson both deny murder. Hudson, of Rowntree Avenue, Clifton, has admitted the manslaughter of Mr McNally. Turpin, of Markham Crescent, off Haxby Road, York, denies causing actual bodily harm to a woman in a separate incident in which the prosecution allege he put pressure on her neck.

Giving evidence at Leeds Crown Court, Turpin claimed that he spent his days drinking heavily, taking drugs and listening to music.

On October 26, 2021, he let Mr McNally, whom he had just met, come back to his flat because they were both drinkers. McNally spent the night there and Turpin left him asleep there when he went out the next morning.

As he was returning with Hudson, Turpin met his mother just after she left his flat. She was concerned he could lose his tenancy because of the number of people drinking with him at his flat and wasn’t happy that Mr McNally was in the flat.

Turpin alleged that he asked Mr McNally to leave but he didn’t do so. Hudson “jabbed” him with part of a vacuum cleaner and Mr McNally “didn’t move”.

Turpin alleged Hudson took Mr McNally’s card and both of them used it to buy alcohol at a nearby off-licence. On the way back to the flat, Turpin disposed of the card. After they got back Hudson allegedly punched Mr McNally and Turpin drank some vodka and took some anti-depressant tablets. He fell asleep.

He denied that he had attacked Mr McNally in a rage and had “punished” him for not leaving the flat as requested. He claimed he wasn't bothered that Mr McNally wasn't leaving.

The trial continues.