A drug dealer accused of murdering Ipswich teenager Tavis Spencer-Aitkens has denied hitting him over the head with a bottle during the fatal attack.

Giving evidence at Ipswich Crown Court, Adebayo Amusa denied being in a delivery van that drove the people who allegedly killed 17-year-old Tavis to Packard Avenue in Ipswich on June 2 last year.

Amusa told the court that on that day he had been in a group of young men including his co-defendants Aristote Yenge, Isaac Calver and a 16-year-old boy, who went to a shop and bought drinks and snacks.

Amusa had purchased Lucozade, two bottles of Caribbean Twist, crisps and biscuits to share with two fellow drug dealers he referred to as “M” and “Y”.

He claimed he had given one of the bottles of Caribbean Twist to “M” and said this could explain how his DNA was on a Caribbean Twist bottle found at the scene of the attack on Tavis.

Asked by his barrister Elizabeth Marsh QC: “Were you one of the people who got out of the van when it stopped in Packard Avenue” he replied: “ No I wasn’t.”

Asked by Miss Marsh: “Did you hit Tavis Spencer-Aitkens with the bottle” he said: “No I didn’t.”

Amusa, who admits being a crack cocaine and heroin dealer, said on June 2 he had arranged for his co-defendant Leon Glasgow to take “M”, Yenge and the 16-year-old boy to the Chantry area of Ipswich in a delivery van.

Amusa said he got into the back of the van to sort out drugs to give Glasgow as payment but denied going in the vehicle to Chantry or Packard Avenue.

In court with Amusa, of Sovereign Road, Barking, are Aristote Yenge, 23, of Spring Road, Ipswich, Callum Plaats, 23, of Ipswich, Isaac Calver, 19, of Firmin Close, Ipswich, Leon Glasgow, 42, of no fixed address and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age.

They all deny murdering Tavis.

It has been alleged the attack on Tavis was the result of rivalry between the J-Block and Neno gangs for what J-Block perceived to be a loss of respect following a row between the 16-year-old defendant and Yenge and two of Tavis’s friends during a confrontation in Ipswich town centre.

The trial continues.