A fairground worker accused of landing a killer punch told police he heard "a crack" when his back was turned to the victim outside an Evesham kebab shop.

Defendant Richard Parker said Sorren Prosser had tried to calm down an aggressive woman seconds before.

He next saw Mr Prosser lying unconscious on the ground where his pupils became dilated.

A jury heard that Parker denied he was the attacker and insisted he was glad Mr Prosser had turned up to help.

If he had seen who hit him he would have had a go at his attacker, but he added: "I didn't see nothing."

Mr Prosser, a 26-year-old fitter, of Cornmill, Elmley Castle, near Evesham, died five days after being punched in the face when his life support system was turned off in Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester. The blow ruptured an artery taking blood to the brain.

Parker, who was working in Evesham, at the Mop Fair, confessed that he punched fellow fairground worker Marcus Raggett the same night, after he was wrongly accused of stealing speakers.

But he insisted he was being "strangled" by Mr Raggett in a scuffle and had warned him three times before delivering the blow in self-defence, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Parker, 21, from Birkenhead, Mersyside, denies the manslaughter of Mr Prosser and assaulting Mr Raggett, causing him actual bodily harm.

He told police he was "in a world of my own" after drinking heavily with a group of fairground workers. They went to the Bodrum Kebab House in High Street for food.

Following a scuffle inside they were ejected by staff but a woman lost her temper outside and "a bloke came out of nowhere" and asked her to calm down.

Parker told the man to leave the woman alone because she was upset. "I turned round and the next minute I heard a crack. He was out on the floor."

The defendant tried to drag Mr Raggett away from the scene because he wanted to fight some youths in the shop, but he lost his temper and hit Mr Raggett after provocation.

Interviewing officers put it to Parker that Mr Prosser's attacker had to be someone in his fairground group.

"God knows," he replied. "I was glad he intervened to calm it down. He was trying to help us. I wouldn't cover up for no one. I know what is right and what is wrong."

The jury heard that the victim was in a happy mood before the tragedy, drinking in pubs and chatting to girls

Boyhood friend Stefan Newell left the Green Dragon with Mr Prosser before he set off for the kebab shop.

"I asked him if he wanted to come back for a drink, but he said no. That was the last I saw of him."

The trial continues.