IPSWICH: An Ipswich man accused of murdering an alcoholic has admitted kicking her twice on the day she died but told the court he didn’t think his actions contributed to her death.

On his second day of giving evidence at Ipswich Crown Court, Paul Clarke said he had been upset and angry on August 4 last year after his dog, Zac, attacked a child in Ipswich town centre.

He said he blamed what had happened on 41-year-old Rosalyn Hunt as he believed she had previously hit the dog.

Clarke said he was worried he was going to lose his pet and wanted to take Mrs Hunt to task about hitting the dog because he believed her actions had led to a change in the animal’s behaviour.

Asked by prosecution counsel Patricia Lynch if “taking her to task” meant using violence towards her, Clarke replied, “Yes. I kicked her twice.”

He said he had been waiting at Mrs Hunt’s flat in Victoria Street for her to return to the premises and said that when she walked in she had crouched on the floor with her back to the wall.

He said that within a few minutes of her arrival he had kicked her twice. “I was thinking I was going to lose my dog and I said ‘My dog has just bit a child’.” “I was angry and frustrated,” he added.

Clarke said he was lying on the floor on his back when he kicked her and had also shouted and spat at her.

Asked by Mrs Lynch if he was out of control, Clarke replied, “No. If I was out of control I would be up on my feet.”

He said a witness who claimed he had seen Clarke threaten Mrs Hunt with a knife and had heard her screaming and crying “No, no” was lying.

Clarke said that after the other people who had been in the flat with him and Mrs Hunt had left, he had fallen asleep and was woken later in the afternoon by a teenage girl who told him Mrs Hunt was dead.

He told the court: “I don’t think the injuries I gave to her would have contributed to her death.”

Clarke, 41, of Mountbatten Court, Ipswich, a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named because of her age, and John Grimwood, 28, have all denied murdering Mrs Hunt in August last year.

Clarke and the girl have also denied murdering 43-year-old Des Thorpe whose body was found at a flat in Limerick Close, Ipswich.

The jury in the trial is today due to visit some of the locations featured in the trial.