Alleged Sheffield killer said he was on a ‘desperate’ search to buy drugs at time of an attack on retired caretaker on Christmas Day

Wayne Muirhead denies attacking Stephen Starkey and said he was trying to find a dealer to supply him with heroin and crack cocaine.

Muirhead told Sheffield Crown Court he was ‘in agony’ because of back pain, which had led to him becoming addicted to morphine and later Class A drugs.

He said on Christmas Day, he had walked to Lowedges from his home on the Batemoor estate and tried two addresses where he thought he would be able to buy drugs before entering a flat near Greenhill Park, where he knew a drug dealer sold drugs.

While there, he told the jury he stole two mobile phones and a games console as well as cash. He said he then ‘left as quietly as possible’ before asking a neighbour to phone him a taxi and joked with the driver he had ‘won the cash in the bookies’.

He later managed to obtain £100 of drugs with the stolen cash and took them with a neighbour.

Prosecutors say Muirhead barged into Mr Starkey’s home on Reney Crescent and punched him in the face before knocking him over and breaking his collar bone. Mr Starkey died in hospital five days later.

Muirhead, of Batemoor Road, Batemoor, denies ever going to Mr Starkey’s home. He denies manslaughter and two counts of robbery.