Heroin addict tells of fatal fight

HEROIN addict Paul Dwyer contemplated suicide in the style of a cult book hero just hours after he had been involved in a fatal fight with teenage drug dealer Peter Brown.

Dwyer told jurors at Norwich Crown Court that Brown, who he knew as "Andrew", was lying dead in his girlfriend's flat when he wrote down what he considered to be a number of immediate options open to him.

He told jurors that he planned to make his next decision by rolling a dice to decide which route to take, in the same way as a character in the Luke Rhinehart book The Dice Man, but he couldn't find a dice in the flat.

One of the options, numbered one to six, included killing himself. Another was to see a priest.

Dwyer, 31, denies murdering Brown, 19, at the flat in Parkwood, Henley Road, Ipswich, on October 25 last year.

He insists that Brown had been fatally wounded as both men struggled for control of a Bowie knife, which Brown had pulled on him after a disagreement over a drug deal.

On day four of the murder trial, jurors heard Dwyer, smartly dressed and speaking in a soft Mancunian accent, tell his account of the incident.

Dwyer said that after the fight had finished, his girlfriend Tara Smith left the flat leaving him alone with "Andrew" dead on the floor.

"I knew he was dead" said Dywer. "There was a great big hole in his neck. I was in a bit of a state so I took some heroin to calm down."

He then contemplated ending his own life in the dice game and later that afternoon, a few hours before being involved in a fight on the A12, he had taken an overdose of heroin, which made him fall asleep.

In court, he told the jury of the lead up to the fatal incident, which left Peter Brown dead from 18 stab wounds, including a severed jugular vein.

Dwyer said he had met "Andrew", who he had known for 12 weeks previously, the evening before the fight and had purchased drugs from him at the flat in Parkwood.

Dwyer said that on October 24 he wanted to buy four wraps of heroin and four wraps of cocaine, worth £65 each, for a total price of £360. This was to be done

on a half-cash, half-credit basis.

Dwyer said he was £25 short of the £180 required to seal the deal and, after offering "Andrew" his camera as security against the deal, gave him his Bowie knife, which had great sentimental value to Dwyer.

Dwyer told him he would settle up the following morning and told the court on October 25 he had collected £330 owed to him from a car boot sale and had sold on six of the eight wraps purchased from "Andrew" for £390.

Dwyer said that "Andrew" had come to Parkwood shortly before the fight to sell him a half-ounce rock of heroin. But when he had only been offered individual wraps and not a complete rock, the situation changed rapidly.

"He said he didn't have half an ounce so I picked up my money and went to put it in my pocket" Dwyer said.

"He said: 'Do you think I'm some kind of pussy?' and pulled the (Bowie) knife from the sheath. I grabbed the knife with my left hand and it cut me straight away. He was attacking me, he was trying to kill me."

Dwyer rocked from side to side in court with his hands clenched in front of him as he acted out how the struggle unfolded.

He said he felt overwhelmed by "Andrew" during the two-to-three minute struggle and said he had cut the 19-year-old's wrists when he tried to gouge his eyes out.

Dwyer claims his girlfriend emerged from a nearby bedroom after he had shouted for her help and that she pulled "Andrew" away from him as he collapsed on the floor and died.

The case continues.