A 19 year-old asylum seeker stamped a gay Londoner to death in self-defence, the Old Bailey heard this week.
Mossab Belhocine, of Forest Road, Walthamstow, denies murdering David Cooper, 28, but admits to physical assault, allegedly after the older man attempted to rape him.
“He came and sat next to me on the sofa and put his hand on my leg and started moving it up and down and moved it to my penis area,” Belhocine pledged, “I got up and was going to leave because I didn't want it to happen.”
“He put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me towards the bed. I fell onto it. He came on top of me and was trying to kiss me.
"I was punching him anywhere and trying to fight him off. I pushed him onto the floor. He was holding my left leg as he was lying on the floor. I kicked him in his chest and face a few times to get my leg free.”
Belhocine admitted that his recollection of the night was incomplete, as he was “really drunk” at the time. The attack took place after the pair had smoked cannabis in Cooper’s Woolwich home.
The defendant told the court he was sexually abused as a child, and that this might have triggered his violent reaction.
The prosecution insists there was no attempted rape, and that Belhocine murdered Cooper in order to rob him. They say he was associated with a group of Algerian pick-pockets centred in the Finsbury Park area.
Belhocine left Cooper’s flat with two bags of household valuables and Cooper’s Oyster card, which police used to track him down.
Upon his arrest, the defendant cried, “He tried to rape me. What was I supposed to do? I had to defend myself. Is he really dead?"
The case continues.