A WOMAN accused of murder said she could not understand why one of her co-defendants was so angry about Army rumours which did not concern him.

Martin Dines, 56, died in St Mary’s Car Park in Balkerne Hill, Colchester, in April.

Heidi Kennedy, 47, Darren Miller, 46, and Mark Hartley, 32, are jointly charged with his murder.

It is alleged Mr Dines was attacked in Head Street, Crouch Street and in the car park by the group which left him with more than 70 injuries.

Giving evidence at Ipswich Crown Court today, Kennedy, who had only met the two men on the day Mr Dines was attacked, said it was Miller who was upset about rumours Mr Dines and his friend Lisa Peck had been spreading that Hartley had never served in the Parachute Regiment.

She said: “He was certainly very aggressive.

“I couldn’t understand why he would be so annoyed about something which was said about somebody else.

“It is not like they are best mates or anything like that.”

Kennedy agreed with a suggestion by Richard Sutton QC, defending for Hartley, that Miller was acting “irrationally” and said in a visit to the car park earlier in the evening, her and Hartley had to stop him from fighting somebody else.

She said Miller was the main aggressor in the stairwell, attacking Mr Dines’ genitals, throwing him against the wall, biting his ear and trying to feed it to him and stamping repeatedly on his neck, and Hartley kicked and punched him in the early part of the assault.

Kennedy described the event as horrific and said Hartley was “agog” at Miller’s more violent actions while she repeatedly told him to stop but he was not listening.

She said Miller had threatened to cut a used can of booze in half and slash Mr Dines with it.

When asked why she didn’t head home to avoid the aggression and violence, Kennedy said: “I think the main reason is it was too late for me to get home to Monkwick.

“Hartley said I could kip at his that night.”

Kennedy said she joined in with verbal abuse of Mr Dines in the first two attacks but was never violent.

“I thought Mr Dines was out of line calling somebody a fake Para,” she said.

“Why would you call somebody a fake Para?

“At the time I thought that was the case and I find it rather disrespectful to speak to someone like that.”

It had been suggested by Brian O’Neill QC, representing Miller, that Kennedy had been protecting Hartley because the pair had slept together when the three returned to his flat in New Kiln Road.

Kennedy vehemently denied the accusation.

She said: “I went and laid on his bed for five minutes.

“He came into the room and said we haven’t got time for sleep we need to talk about what we are going to do – whether it is leave the country or go on the run.

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“I didn’t sleep with Mark Hartley whatsoever. Absolutely not.”

Kennedy, of Queen Elizabeth Way, Colchester, Miller, of no fixed address, and Hartley all deny murder.

But Miller has admitted to Mr Dines’ manslaughter while Kennedy has admitted assaulting Lisa Peck, a friend of Mr Dines, on the same night.

The trial continues.