An alleged murder victim was heard crying and wheezing as he was attacked days before his killing, a jury heard.

Daniel Smith, who lived in the hostel in Thornton Road, Bradford, where Ranjib Bassra’s body was found, said he heard Adrian Ray screaming at him.

Mr Smith, himself arrested on suspicion of Mr Bassra’s murder, said he heard Ray shouting at him and hitting him.

Ray, 26, and Kristian Harland, 29, deny murdering Mr Bassra, known as Robin, and attempting to pervert the course of public justice.

Mr Smith told Bradford Crown Court yesterday he could not remember when he overheard the assault. “Adie was laying into Robin. I could hear Robin, crying and wheezing verbally, and Adie screaming at him,” Mr Smith said.

He added that both Ray and Robin appeared to have had a lot to drink.

Mr Smith told the court he never saw Ray assault Robin or Harland fall out with anyone.

He claimed Ray was “the main man” in their group at the Thornton Road hostel for men with drink and drug problems.

“If he’s had a drink, he thinks he’s like ten men,” Mr Smith told the police. He said that meant Ray could be rowdy and violent. Mr Smith said he was on police bail for three months after Mr Bassra was found dead before he was cleared.

Ray, who lodged with Mr Bassra at the hostel, and Harland, who lived in the room above, are accused of beating him to death on the night of July 29 to 30 last year.

The Crown says the pair struck him with weapons, including a pewter beer tankard and a broom, and kicked and stamped on him.

The alleged murderers are then said to have cleaned and redressed their bloodied victim and laid him in a sleeping position to cover their tracks. Mr Bassra, 48, a chronic alcoholic, was pronounced dead by paramedics in his ground floor flat at 2.12pm on July 30.

The trial continues.