A man accused of murdering a hospital worker said yesterday it was a "robbery that went wrong".

William Charlton admitted he hit Tarquin Turner with a fence post but said he only wanted to knock him down.

Bradford Crown Court heard that when asked by his barrister, Graham Hyland QC, what he was doing, Charlton said: "I was just intending to rob him.

"I did not want to hurt him, I just wanted to get him down on the ground." Asked if it was his intention to kill, he said: "Definitely not."

Asked if he had any intention of doing serious bodily harm he replied: "Definitely not, no." He added: "If I had known he was seriously harmed I would have used his phone to call an ambulance."

Charlton, 21, who admits manslaughter but denies murder, said his co-accused, a 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, first spotted Mr Turner, 31, of Eccleshill, on Intake Road, Undercliffe, last October. He said the teenager nodded towards Mr Turner and then broke off two pieces of fence.

He said: "I threw the first blow. Mr Turner was half turned towards me and I hit him on the shoulder or above. I was just aiming at him not for a particular spot."

Both he and Mr Turner fell to the ground. He said he punched him two or three times in the face before the teenager, who also denies murder, joined in the attack.

Charlton rifled Mr Turner's pockets and stole two £10 notes. Then they ran off.

Charlton, of Foston Lane, Fagley, said he only found out he had been involved in a killing when the teenager told him the next day: "When I found out I just felt sick. I just wanted to go home."

That day, Charlton said, he had drunk eight cans of lager walking to the Blue Pig pub where he had 12 bottles of Newcastle Brown. He drank the pub out of Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort.

He said he was, "pretty drunk, but not legless."

When interviewed, he initially denied any involvement because he was scared of going to jail.

Charlton, originally from Newcastle, had only been living in Bradford for a matter of weeks before the killing. He also denied he had made threats to put lit cigarettes in people's eyes and to petrol bomb their houses if they said anything to the police.

Both Charlton and the teenager have pleaded guilty to robbing Mr Turner.

The trial continues.