A MAN accused of murder revealed to pals how he had used a baseball bat as he beat Jamie Dack to death, a court heard.

Lee Nicholls confessed to friends how he launched the assault after hearing that 22-year-old Jamie had "tried it on" with his girlfriend, jurors were told.

Jack Harris and Jasmine Phippard said 28-year-old Nicholls whispered to them what had happened when he met with them in the dining area of Patrick House hostel in Southampton.

A few days later, Jamie's body was discovered in a burning bin at Empress Road.

Winchester Crown Court has heard how Jamie had been lured to a flat at Bevois Mews before being stabbed repeatedly to the neck, chest, abdomen, legs and shoulder and beaten by a gang, who had set out to rob him of his laptop and cash card.

Nicholls as well as Andrew Dwyer-Skeats, Donna Chalk and Ryan Woodmansey all deny murder.

The three men have admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of and setting fire to Jamie’s body. Chalk denies that charge.

Mr Harris told police how Nicholls' behaviour was "shifty" when they met on the afternoon of Good Friday.

In a recording of her police interview played out on television screens in court, Ms Phippard described the moment Nicholls appeared at the hostel.

The 21-year-old said to detectives: "He told us what he did. He was saying that his missus - his girlfriend - that Jamie tried it on with her. Lee's girlfriend told Lee and Lee went round and said that he beat Jamie up and beat him round the head with a baseball bat and that he killed him.

"He kept saying 'he's dead, he's dead'. I had a go at him because I thought it was disgusting. He just kept saying that his girlfriend would not lie to him.

"The thing I could not understand was why he had told me and Jack what had happened.

"It felt a bit weird that he blurted it out like that. He was acting weird - shifty."

Once Nicholls had left on a bus, the jury heard, Mr Harris called police saying that he had been told "a group of lads" had beaten somebody to death. In court, Mr Harris said he was "not sure" what Nicholls had said about whether anybody else had been involved.

The court has heard that Chalk, 21, and Dwyer-Skeats, 26, of Bevois Mews, Nicholls, of Southampton Street and Woodmansey, 32, of no fixed address carried out an attack on Jamie putting him inside a wardrobe, his eyes blackened and covered in his own blood.

After successfully selling the computer for £100, the group is alleged to have returned and delivered another beating which proved fatal.

Proceeding