Accused was 'fighting for life'

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A man accused of a double murder claimed he was fighting for his life when he bludgeoned a mother-of-two and her nephew to death with a hammer.

Gerald McLeish said that the violence started after John Park, 25, discovered he had been having sex with his aunt Bernadette Johnstone, 39.

Mr McLeish said he tried to leave the flat in Cranhill, Glasgow, but he found the door was locked.

He denies murdering Mrs Johnstone and her nephew last year.

Mr McLeish also denies raping Mrs Johnstone.

At the High Court in Glasgow, labourer Mr McLeish told his counsel, Edward Targowski QC, that he could not leave the flat because the door was locked and there were no keys.

Then he said he turned round and saw Mr Park coming at him with a hammer. Mr McLeish said: "I thought I was going to get done in. My back was to the door and he was in front of me about a foot away.

Then I started lashing out at both of them. It all happened too fast. Just like that, both of them were down and they were dead Gerald McLeish

"He hit me with the hammer. I kept screaming for him to stop and then I started punching, kicking and biting because I knew I was going to have to fight back."

Mr McLeish claimed Mrs Johnstone, who was unarmed, was backing her nephew up.

Asked by Mr Targowski what he thought was going to happen to him when he found himself on the floor, he replied: "I thought they were going to kill me.

"I put my arms up to protect my face and saw a hammer coming down and grabbed it. We were trying to get the hammer off each other and my thumb went in his eye.

"Then I started lashing out at both of them. It all happened too fast. Just like that, both of them were down and they were dead."

The offences are alleged to have happened in Mr Park's 15th floor flat at 7 Longstone Place, Cranhill, on 30 or 31 August last year.

Mr McLeish has lodged special defences of self defence in relation to the murder charges, and consent for the rape.

No reasoning

Mr McLeish told Mr Targowski that he had been invited up by Mr Park for a drink in his flat and was introduced to his aunt. An hour and a half later, he claimed that they went to the bedroom for sex.

He told Mr Targowski there was no reasoning with the couple, and added: "I was screaming for them to stop. I actually begged them to stop and was shouting for help."

Mr McLeish told the jury that when he saw the two bodies he was in a state of "shock and panic" and tried to revive them unsuccessfully.

The front door was still locked and he began shouting through the letter box and banging at the door with the hammer.

Mr McLeish said he was "covered in blood from head to toe" and spent two hours trying to clean it off both him, his clothing and the flat, but there was "just too much of it".

He changed out of his bloodstained clothes and hid it and the hammer in a bag and put on a top and track suit bottoms he found in the flat.

Ran away

He also described how he moved the bodies into the bedroom, hiding Mr Park first of all under the bed, then dragging his aunt in next to him to put a couch over her.

Then he phoned 999 for the fire brigade to help him get out of the flat saying his pal had locked him in and gone away.

Mr McLeish also described how he ran away from the police in panic after the door was opened. He was arrested after a chase.

The trial before Lord Hardie continues.