A DEESIDE man on trial for murder has denied suggestions that he was the muscle, or the minder, for a Liverpool drugs dealer.

Leslie Peter Baines told a Mold Crown Court jury he was not at the block of flats where 19-year-old Matthew Cassidy was stabbed to death in the stairwell.

Baines, 48, of Kings Road in Connah’s Quay, denies the murder of Mr Cassidy, 19, of Huyton, Liverpool, said to have been dealing drugs in Connah’s Quay.

Co-defendant David John Woods, 20, of Douglas Place, Liverpool, the leader of a rival drugs gang, changed his plea to guilty on Monday.

Baines, questioned by his barrister Patrick Harrington QC, said he took alcohol every day and cocaine twice a week and would ring a number to get his drugs.

He said he knew Woods, as Ted, who was the local drug dealer.

Baines said he did not know Mr Cassidy, had never heard his name and had no hostility towards him.

“I did not know of his existence,” he said, and had nothing to do with his death.

On May 29 he was “just chilling at my mum’s”. He stayed in all day and had been drinking cans of lager.

In the evening he decided he wanted to get some drugs and walked down towards The Rock by the River Dee to see if “anyone was on” ready to serve drugs.

He was hoping to see Ted or one of the others but there was no-one there.

He tried the cricket pitch but there was no one there either.

Baines said he was caught in “proper rain” and he was soaked through to the skin and changed his clothes back at his mum’s because he was “dripping”.

Later he had word that the Scousers were at a house ready to serve and he found the house full of people waiting to score.

Woods was there with a tea towel wrapped around his hand with blood coming through it. He said he had been slashed.

Baines said he had been to the Bethel Place flats where the murder occurred loads of times, but not that night.

Wood’s DNA on his trainers must have occurred when he bought drugs off him, he said.

Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, said drug dealers sometimes had muscle, strong men, accompanying them to look after them.

“Where you fulfilling the role of minder for Ted the drug dealer?” he asked. Baines replied "no".

Mr Lewis asked if there was a relationship between Woods and Baines’ sister.

“She does not go out with him,” he said, but he thought they were friends.

The prosecutor said two men had been seen outside the flats moments after the murder – one passing something to the other. “Was that a knife?” he asked.

Baines replied: “I don’t know. I was not there.”

Mr Lewis asked if it a coincidence that, on his evidence, within a short period of the murder he met the murderer?

Baines said he did not know what Woods had done.

He was bleeding and said he had stabbed someone.

Baines said he did not know in advance that Woods intended to stab Mr Cassidy, did not know that was what Woods intended to do when he went to the flat and did not go with him.

Mr Lewis said Baines could have given police a lot of useful information to help their enquires.

Baines said it was not for him to say and he had been brought up not to be a snitch.

The prosecutor said if the trainers at the scene were those of Baines, then that put him right at the scene of the fatal blow.

Mr Lewis said after the initial stabbing Mr Cassidy had for some reason run upstairs where he was further stabbed. He asked Baines: Who stopped Mr Cassidy from leaving the block?”

Baines: “I don’t know. I was not there.”

The prosecutor said two knives had been recovered. “Did you and Woods have one each?” He asked if Baines and Woods had chased him up the stairs.

Mr Lewis asked if he was involved in the actual stabbing or was he playing some other role at the scene, preventing Mr Cassidy from leaving by the rear door or encouraging Woods in what he was doing?

Baines repeatedly said he was not there.

The jury has been sent home until Monday when they will be given legal directions by the judge before the barristers sum up their cases.

Proceeding.