Murder suspect Julian Felisi denied concocting a succession of lies to cover himself as the killer of Gary Bennett at St Albans Crown Court this afternoon.

The court heard, in the aftermath of Mr Bennett's death, Felisi was “too scared” to call the police due to “threats from two Irishmen” whom he alleges killed the Watford bin man.

Prosecuting barrister Michael Speak asked the 38-year-old defendant, from Whippendell Road, Watford, why he did not phone Mr Bennett instead to see if he was all right.

Mr Speak said: “There you were no more than five or six minutes drive away from Aldenham Country Park. You don't know if Mr Bennett is badly hurt or what has happened to him.

“You have told the jury a reason why you didn't call the police, you say you can't think of a reason why you didn't call an ambulance. I am asking you, why didn't you call Gary Bennett?”

Felisi told the court he didn't know before Mr Speak added: “So when that phone was in your hand the only thing you could think to do was to ring Dave Ansley to tell him you were going to be a few minutes late for work?

“You rang in late for work yet you failed to ring Gary Bennett, an injured man lying in Aldenham Country Park, to see how he was.

“The truth is you didn't need or want to make that call because you had smashed the back of his head in at that kiosk and left him in the park having murdered him. That is the truth isn't it?”

Felisi denied this. Mr Speak earlier asked the defendant if he was going to “tell the jury what story he told Mr Bennett to lure him into the park that morning”, to which Felisi replied “no”.

Mr Speak also pointed out a lack of consistency between Mr Felisi's defence case statement and the testimony he gave in court on Friday.

In his defence case statement, Felisi said the two Irishmen were wearing dark clothes, one of whom had a “luminous cuff, possibly a high visibility jacket turned inside out”.

During his testimony in court however, Felisi said one of the men wore a fully luminous coat which is picked up by the CCTV camera walking into the park.

When asked where the fully luminous clothing would have appeared from, Felisi said the Irishman “probably turned it back inside out when he went into the park to disguise himself – probably to make people think he was someone else if the cameras saw him”.

Mr Speak said: “This is a desperate attempt by you to account for the two fluorescent dots on the camera isn't it? Though you know it is yourself and Gary Bennett.”

Defence barrister Nicholas Rhodes finally asked Felisi if he knew there was CCTV in operation at Aldenham Country Park.

Felisi said he was aware there was CCTV in operation both at the park, as he used to regularly visit it, and at Bio Products Laboratory over the road, where he made deliveries in a previous job.

The prosecution is due to give its closing statements on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the defence on Wednesday, before the jury retire to make a decision some time on Thursday.