A MAN has denied organising or being involved in a “severe beating” that resulted in the death of Ted Shaxted.

Kelvin Horlock said he was at a party for his young daughter’s birthday at the time the 36-year-old victim was attacked at his Northfleet home. He died two weeks later.

Horlock, 29, said there was discussion at the party at the George and Dragon pub about his mother’s car being crashed by Mr Shaxted the previous day while over the drink-drive limit.

“Everyone was saying the same thing - he took the p---, basically, in what he has done.”

Horlock said nobody approached Trevor Lees, who has admitted manslaughter, and asked him to give Mr Shaxted a “slap”.

“I didn’t see him leave the pub,” he told Maidstone Crown Court. “I didn’t leave the pub that night.”

Horlock, of Hatfield Road, Strood, Lees, 35, of London Road, Northfleet, Bill Saunders, 27, of Shamrock Road, Gravesend, and Marvin Service, 33, of Brandon Street, Gravesend, all deny murder.

Horlock, Service and Saunders also deny manslaughter.

The prosecution say Mr Shaxted, who was 36, was given a “sustained and substantial beating” at his flat in Wallis Park in December 2007.

The trial continues.