A NETHERTON man accused of attempted murder after an ugly punch-up outside a Dudley pub has told a jury he was not involved in any of the violence.

Darren Edwards allegedly stabbed 23-year-old Christopher Perkins several times outside The Earl of Dudley pub in Wellington Road.

Mr Perkins had to undergo emergency surgery and was hospitalised for five days after he suffered a collapsed lung, a laceration to his other lung and a cut to the sac surrounding his heart.

But Edwards, of Kilburn Place, told the five man-seven woman panel at Wolverhampton Crown Court he was not responsible for his injuries.

The 36-year-old window fitter said he decided to act as a peacemaker when he saw two groups fighting adding, “I went across to break it up and tell them all to leave.”

But he said that before he got to the commotion he received two blows himself that caught him by surprise and left him feeling “a bit dizzy".

Edwards told the jury, “I had no knife or any sharp implement. I did not stab that man. I did not get involved in any way in the fighting.”

He said he had not thrown any punches and after being struck himself he decided to leave the scene because he feared for his own safety.

“I did not know there had been a serious incident at the pub,” he added as he described how later the same day he travelled down to Bristol for a work assignment.

Edwards said he then became aware that police were looking for him but he missed an appointment with them in Dudley because he had not finished his work in Bristol.

“I was told somebody else had been arrested so I buried my head in the sand,” he told the jury.

“I was a bit agitated but I knew I had done nothing wrong.”

Grace Hale, prosecuting, told the court trouble flared between two groups outside the pub and Edwards was arrested after being picked out at an identity parade by Mr Perkins.

She said that if someone struck out at another person so hard they pierced organs not one ,not two but five times then that person “must have intended to kill”.

Edwards has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Mr Perkins and to a second charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial is continuing and it is expected the jury will retire to consider the evidence next week.