A MARTIAL arts instructor on trial for the murder of a Teesside drug dealer told police he was not aggressive - but said he could take on 50 men if he had to.

Former soldier Tony Bottrill, 41, told detectives during three interviews that he had never met Bryan Scott, 26, who was shot twice in the back, on the Kirkleatham showground, near Redcar, on a Saturday night in March.

Bottrill said he taught judo, kendo, karate, and tai chi, and that he could use martial arts weapons.

He said he trained by running through the sand dunes at Redcar, as well as walking, and 35-minute sessions on his home punchbag.

At weekends, he looked after his nine-year-old daughter who lived nearby with her mother.

Saturday nights he spent alone, reading or watching television.

Bottrill told police: "I would not be involved in a situation where I would go to jail and not see my daughter."

He said he became very close to a pupil, Amanda Lanaway, whose husband Dean Taylor telephoned him, threatening to slit his throat.

Bottrill said: "If anyone wants to have a go at me they have got to come to me - one or 50, it would make no odds."

He denied a handwriting expert's claim that he wrote three anonymous letters to the police. In one the writer was claiming that he was there at the killing.

Bottrill, of High Street West, Redcar, denies murdering Mr Scott, of Charles Street, Redcar.

The trial continues.