Jacksdale man said 'I proper battered him' with a piece of metal - murder trial told

Matthew and Luke Roe deny murdering Henry Thwaites near a country estate in Worksop, on July 23 last year.

Mr Thwaites, a friend of their mother, had served two separate prison terms for offences against boys under 16. His body was found under a metal fence by a passing motorist the next morning.

Nottingham Crown Court previously heard the brothers later travelled to Abby Dixon's address in Watson Road, where it is alleged she helped them dispose of clothes in a garden incinerator. The 27-year-old, described in court as being in a relationship with Luke Roe, denies two counts of assisting an offender.

Witness Brian Adams refused to take the oath or answer questions as prosecutor John Cammegh KC read out a statement he gave to police in October last year.

In it, he described seeing the brothers, their father, and Dixon arrive in a silver Fiat Punto, with a smashed passenger window, and park it on Watson Road ‘as if to hide it’.

Both brothers were drinking Southern Comfort. One said: “It's all right – we've just burned our clothes.”

The other said: “I’ve had a fight with my mate and I burned the clothes to get rid of evidence.”

In his statement, Adams said: “I knew then something was bad.”

He described Matthew Roe boasting that he ‘proper battered him’ with a piece of metal, adding: “He said something about my kids and I'm not having that.”

Adams advised them to get him to hospital and not to leave him there ‘because it would be a murder charge’.

Matthew Roe said: “I don't care. I don’t give a s*** if he's dead.”

The brothers ‘drove off again like idiots’ and said the Fiat was ‘going to get burnt out so it don’t matter’.

When he was cross-examined by barrister Adrian Langdale, Adams said: "I am a criminal. I would never give evidence on anyone - no matter what they have done."

Luke Roe, 34, of Potter Street, Worksop, and Matthew Roe, 25, of Franklin Road, Jacksdale, deny murder. The trial continues.