A young man said “Let me die in peace” as he was beaten by a group of men acting like animals, a murder trial heard today.

Junaid Hussain told the police he “never laid a finger” on Mohammed Feazan Ayaz but saw others attacking him as he lay bloodied on the floor at Denholme Business Centre.

Read the live blog of Thursday's Denholme murder trial hearing here

Hussain, 28, of Silverhill Road, Bradford Moor, Bradford, denies murdering Mr Ayaz, known as Fizzy, between June 30 and July 1 last year.

He said Mr Ayaz, 20, of Duckworth Grove, Manningham, Bradford, was attacked “out of the blue.”

He was drunk and threatening: “I am going to grass you all up. You’re all going to get arrested.”

Hussain said that co-accused Raheel Khan was “wanted over a gun charge.”

He told officers from the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team that he said: “Leave the poor lad alone, he’s had enough.”

He saw Fizzy struck on the head with a bottle, hit with a stick and punched and kicked.

“He was bloodied up. His white socks had turned red and his face had opened up,” Hussain said.

He told how he was on a sofa in another room at Unit 2 at the business centre but kept going to try to stop the attack.

He heard Fizzy say: “Let me die in peace.”

Hussain added: “That’s animals. I can’t see people doing that.”

He added: “It makes me sick when they start beating a little kid up for no reason.”

Hussain said he left the unit when he got a lift and Fizzy was still alive and talking at that point.

The jury has heard from the prosecution that Mr Ayaz was stripped naked and “systematically and sadistically beaten to death” before his body was dumped in Saffron Drive, Allerton, Bradford.

Also on trial denying his murder are: Suleman Khan, 20, of Sandford Road, Bradford Moor, Bradford; Robert Wainwright, 26, of Mannville Terrace, Bradford City Centre; Raheel Khan, 27, of no fixed address; and Stephen Queeney, 34, of Junction Row, Bolton Road, Bradford.

Shaoib Shafiq, 20, of Gladstone Street, Bradford Moor, and a 17-year-old Bradford youth, who cannot be named because of his age, plead not guilty to assisting an offender.

Raheel Khan admits manslaughter.

The trial continues.