GILLYGATE killer John Paul Marshall has admitted he wanted the two drug dealers who had moved into his York home dead.

The heroin addict told a jury that he used a heavy light fitting to smash the men's heads as they slept in the living room of his council bedsit.

Under cross-examination by James Goss QC at Leeds Crown Court, he said he "just acted" when he woke up on December 1 last year and saw the pair in a drug-induced sleep.

The court had already heard how Marshall, who had used heroin for 15 years, was suffering terrible withdrawal symptoms after the pair had refused to give him more of the drug the previous day.

Mr Goss said: "What was your thought process when you saw them asleep in the living room, what were you thinking?" He replied: "I wanted them dead."

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Evening Press, Marshall said Daniel Wall, 27, started to wake up in his armchair as he stood over him with the bloody weapon. He killed him with a single blow.

The court heard that seconds earlier he had killed father-of-three Kevin Mulgrew, 38, with three or four double-handed swings of the 2kg wooden lamp stand.

After attacking both men he used a plastic carrier bag to smother their faces and make sure they were dead, before stripping their bodies of cash and jewellery, he admitted.

During the five day trial Marshall has admitted killing the two friends and fellow addicts, but denies murder on the grounds that he was provoked.

He claimed that he felt intimidated after the pair moved into his home in late November and began selling drugs. He said they implied threats against his family and said they would steal his cannabis and cash.

In court yesterday, his sister, Zoe, said Marshall visited their mother's house off Hull Road on the evening of the killings to collect his washing as usual.

She said he was nervous and that when her young son asked if he could visit his flat he became "very agitated". She said: "He seemed to be nervous, moving from one foot to the other. He wasn't himself."

The next day he drove to Leeds where he dumped his car in a supermarket car park after buying drugs with a friend and staying overnight.

He then travelled by land and sea to Amsterdam in Holland where he was arrested by officers on December 22 after his mother, Susan Lightfoot, tipped them off about where he was staying.

The trial continues

Updated: 09:51 Wednesday, December 22, 2004