A FLOOR layer accused of waving the dismembered arm of his alleged victim from a car window told an Old Bailey jury he had never even met the man.

James Lawlor, 26, is said to have shot father-of-six Roy Brooker, 41, through the mouth then helped to butcher his body.

On the drive to dump the corpse, in a landfill site in Rainham, Essex, Lawlor is said to have waved at passing motorists with the severed limb.

In the dock with Lawlor is Brian Stead, 33, and Lawlor's brother Jason, 29.

James Lawlor told the jury that he had rented the flat in Bermondsey, London, where the body was allegedly cut up.

Lawlor agreed to go to Stead's home town of Sunderland for Christmas.

The court has heard Stead made a statement through his solicitors detailing the killing and dismemberment.

He claimed that Lawlor trailed one of Mr Brooker's arms out of the window as they travelled to dispose of it.

Lawlor said the two men drove north in Stead's Mercedes and stayed at the Station Hotel, Newcastle.

Stead claims Lawlor bragged about the killing and waving the arm from the window, when they were in the North-East together.

Stead is alleged to have helped in the execution by stabbing Mr Brooker, while Jason Lawlor was called to help clean up and redecorate the bloodstained flat.

James Lawlor and Stead, last living at a flat in Bermondsey, both deny murdering Roy Brooker on December 16 last year.

They and Jason Lawlor, also of Bermondsey, deny acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice by removing the body from the flat, disposing of it, and by tidying up and redecorating the flat.

The trial continues.