A man has told a jury he stamped four times on a pensioner's face after the 72-year-old molested his girlfriend.

Jonathon Langley, 22, said he knocked Jankee Jaimungal down to scare him and to stop him doing it again. He stamped on his face twice with each foot.

"It didn't cause really serious harm because he started to get up," Langley told the jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

He claims his girlfriend Leeann Lamb, 21, and Ian Trafford, 46, brutally set about Mr Jaimungal, fatally injuring him.

All three deny murdering the widower on March 20.

Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC told the court Mr Jaimungal died from repeated and forceful blows to the head, face and neck consistent with punching, kicking, stamping and the possible use of a weapon.

He lost consciousness and drowned in his own blood.

Mr Campbell alleges all three defendants set about Mr Jaimungal in Trafford's flat, in Maythorne Avenue, Staincliffe, Batley.

They left him for dead while they bought beer from an off-licence.

The jury heard Mr Jaimungal, also of Staincliffe, was well known in the local community. He had a number of problems and received help from a mental health team.

Langley, of Prospect Road, Heckmond-wike, a window cleaner, said he began going out with Lamb in January this year.

At the time of Mr Jaimungal's death, she was also living at Prospect Road.

Langley said he was suspicious Lamb was cheating on him and checked her mobile phone daily.

He said the first time he met Mr Jaimungal was in Trafford's flat the night he died.

"Why would I want to kill someone I'd only just met?" he asked. He told the court he was horrified by Lamb and Trafford's attack on Mr Jaimungal.

Both were drunk when they kicked and punched him.

"The other two took it much further than me," he said.

"I started going out with Leeann in January and, three months later, I'm on a murder charge."

He told how he saw Leeann tip a bucket of water over the injured Mr Jaimungal. He nose was bleeding and he had blood on his face.

Langley said he never intended Mr Jaimungal to come to serious harm.

"I just wanted to restrain him for molesting Leeann," he said.

He alleged Lamb removed Mr Jaimungal's glasses and threw them to one side.

Both she and Trafford were punching him and the pensioner was not fighting back, he said.

The trial continues.