A HEROIN addict accused of murder has told a court that he considered himself lucky to have survived a fight in which his drug supplier died.Giving evidence during the second week of his trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Paul Dwyer said he believed that his alleged victim Peter Brown was trying to kill him during a violent struggle at a flat in the town's Henley Road.

A HEROIN addict accused of murder has told a court that he considered himself lucky to have survived a fight in which his drug supplier died.

Giving evidence during the second week of his trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Paul Dwyer said he believed that his alleged victim Peter Brown was trying to kill him during a violent struggle at a flat in the town's Henley Road.

Dwyer claimed that 19-year-old Mr Brown had pulled out a knife during an argument about payment for drugs and had pushed the knife towards him as they grappled with each other.

He said: “I thought 'please don't let him kill me'. He was pushing the knife towards me and I was pushing the knife back to him. It became very intense.”

Dwyer said he feared that if he didn't keep struggling for control of the knife he would have been wounded with it.

He said: “I was lucky to have survived the fight. As time has gone by I have had to live with the fact that I'm responsible for taking his life. I don't feel entirely responsible for his death. I'm obviously the person that caused this to happen in as much as I was fighting back.”

Asked by his barrister Sasha Wass QC: “Did you intend to put the blade into him in a fatal manner?”

Dwyer replied: “I had nothing to gain from killing him. I had no motive to kill him.”

Dwyer said that when he realised that Mr Brown was dead he had been in turmoil and had used some of Mr Brown's drugs to take an overdose.

He said: “I found myself in this situation. I just couldn't see a way out for me.”

Dwyer, 37, of no fixed address, has denied murdering Mr Brown on October 25, 2001. The court has heard that Dwyer stood trial for Mr Brown's murder in 2002 but there had been a problem with that trial.

The court heard that Dwyer was a drug addict who had been supplied with drugs by Mr Brown.

Mr Brown was found to have suffered 18 wounds including a cut to his neck which severed his jugular vein.

The trial continues today