A DUTCH police officer heard a York man admit to killing two of his friends only minutes after his dramatic arrest in Amsterdam, a court heard.

Officers cornered John Paul Marshall, 43, as he stayed in a hostel called Shelter City on December 22, last year.

Leeds Crown Court was told today, in a statement from Amsterdam police, that they were acting on information passed on by North Yorkshire Police to Interpol, to say that the unemployed council tenant had fled to the Dutch city from his flat in Gillygate, York. When Marshall was brought back to a Dutch police station he admitted to a custody officer that he knew he was wanted for the murder of two men.

He said: "For years they have threatened me and my family, they asked for it.

"I am a peaceful man and I want to stay a little while longer in Holland."

Marshall has denied murdering Kevin Mulgrew, 38, and Daniel Wall, 27, at his York home between November 30 and December 4 last year, but he has admitted killing them on the grounds that he was provoked. The jury also heard today how personal tragedies in the lives of the two victims drove them towards a life of drug use and crime.

Daniel Wall's mother Rosemary, of Chapelfields Road, said he began using heroin after his cousin committed suicide by jumping from the Humber Bridge during Christmas 1996.

In a statement read to the court, she said: "I believe he was taking more heroin to deal with his problems. When he did come home he was reluctant to discuss where he had been or with whom."

Paulanne Mulgrew, who was separated from her husband Kevin, described him as a protective man who was loyal to his family.

She said that although he had been a drug user for some time, when his much-loved younger brother Darren killed himself in 1996 he became extremely depressed.

She said: "Kevin was very close to Darren and always looked at him as his main family. I don't think he can get losing Darren out of his system.

"He would bottle up all his feelings and not talk about it and I think this pushed him further into the drugs scene."

The trial continues.

Updated: 14:26 Monday, December 20, 2004