A York man calmly sold drugs from the door of his home as two dead bodies lay just feet away, a court heard.

Unemployed John Paul Marshall, 43, sold cannabis at the communal entrance to his Gillygate flat, in York, hours after killing Kevin Mulgrew and Daniel Wall.

Marshall admits bludgeoning the two drug addicts to death as they slept in his living room.

But he denies murdering the men, who had invited themselves into his home days earlier, on the grounds that he was provoked and lost control.

James Goss, QC, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court how council workmen were called after a complaint from staff at the downstairs Oven Glove bakery about a "brownish red substance" dripping down their wall.

Mr Goss said that when the council surveyors began trying to force their way into the flat, Marshall appeared at the door "unkempt and grunting".

He said: "He was shown the marks on the bakery wall. He shrugged and said he did not know anything about the leaking substance." Forensic scientists later found that the stain was blood.

When police returned on December 4 after further complaints about leaking fluids and a terrible stench they finally discovered the two men's bodies.

The court was told that the men were thought to have been killed on the morning on December 1 after a late night during which all three men smoked heroin together with a fourth addict, who left.

Marshall fled his home on the afternoon of December 2, driving first to Leeds, where he bought drugs and stayed with a friend, before travelling to Amsterdam .He was brought back to face justice in June after Dutch police arrested him at a hostel.

Marshall denies murdering the two men. The trial continues.