Murder accused Kenneth Burgess took the witness stand in the Cooper twins trial yesterday ? and gave a detailed account of where he was when the prosecution claim he violently attacked the brothers.

Burgess, who denied killing the twins and dumping their bodies at Abbot?s Cliff last March, said he assaulted one of the brothers a year before he was arrested on suspicion of double murder.

And in a dramatic day at Supreme Court One, the defendant distanced himself from a blood-stained shirt found in the flat above the apartment where the alleged baseball bat attack took place.

DNA tests showed the sports shirt had Burgess? skin and Jahmal Cooper?s blood on it. Burgess said it had been his shirt but claimed it had definitely been ?planted? in a laundry basket, because he had not worn it for a long time and it may have been among clothes he had given away to family or friends.

It also emerged that Burgess has previous convictions for using counterfeit American dollars in the US in 1995 and for impersonating a Police Officer in Bermuda in 2004.

The prosecution claims Burgess and co-accused Dennis Alma Robinson drove the twins from Burgess? gambling den in Elliott Street to his property in Crown Hill Lane, Devonshire, in the early hours of March 13.

The trial has heard that Burgess then launched a vicious assault on the brothers with an aluminium weapon, as Robinson stood by the door.

But Burgess, questioned by his barrister Courtenay Griffiths QC, yesterday denied that version of events.

He said he went to his rented property on Elliott Street ? where gambling was taking place and the twins were regular visitors ? at about 11 p.m. on Saturday March 12 and stayed there most of the night.

The jury heard that at about 2.30 a.m. on March 13 Burgess went to Swinging Doors nightclub and stayed until it closed at about 3.15 a.m.

He said he then went back to the gambling den, where he stayed until about 4.30 to 4.45 a.m. The defendant said he got a call from his wife on his cell phone, but did not answer because he was ?gambling and losing?.

He called her back at about 4.45 a.m. and was told his son?s temperature was about 103. He told his wife to call a cab because it would be faster than him picking her up.

Burgess said she called at about 5.15 a.m. to say she was in the cab and on the way to the hospital.

In between these calls, the defendant said he left Elliott Street to head to Crown Hill Lane to get more money ? he planned to recoup about $200 he had lost gambling. When he left he said he saw the twins among a group of about six people. The court heard Burgess gave one of the twins and three others a lift to Fat Man?s Cafe, less than a minute?s walk from Crown Hill Lane.

Burgess said he returned and stayed at Elliott Street gambling until about 6.30 to 6.45 a.m, filled his car up with gas at about 6.50 a.m. before picking his wife and son up from the hospital. He then went home to Cottage Hill Road.

The court heard Burgess woke at about 1 p.m. that same day and went to the supermarket, where he identified himself in court on shopping centre CCTV pictures.

After 7 p.m. he went to the gambling den and noticed a window had been smashed. Police were contacted but Burgess said he did not want to make a complaint. He then received a call on his cell phone from Det. Con. Carl Neblett asking if he could come to the police station about the damage.

When Burgess arrived at the Police station, the court heard, he was asked to give a statement about his whereabouts between 3 and 6 a.m. that morning.

?Were you told you were being asked to give that information in relation to the disappearance of the twins,? asked Mr. Griffiths.

?No I wasn?t,? replied Burgess.

The barrister asked why Burgess made no mention of giving the twins a lift to Fat Man?s Cafe in that statement. The defendant said he was only asked to detail his own whereabouts. The jury heard that minutes after making the statement Burgess was arrested in connection with the twins? investigation.

Police later examined Burgess? hands for signs of injury. None were found, and he told the jury that as a result of a sporting injury any contact with his right hand near the knuckle would cause ?a great deal of pain and swelling?.

Earlier yesterday, Burgess also admitted hitting one of the twins about a year before he was arrested for double murder.

The court heard Burgess hit out after a confrontation between the twin and Burgess? father in the Elliott Street gambling den.

Burgess said the drunken Cooper brother had accused Burgess senior of spreading the word that he had been responsible for the defendant?s father getting assaulted.

The defendant said the twin ? whom he did not identify in court as either Jahmal or Jahmil ? did not realise Burgess had witnessed the conversation.

The defendant said the brother, who was ?right in his father?s face?, later asked Burgess and his dad: ?You guys think I robbed your father.? Burgess said he replied: ?I?ve never said that you robbed my father.?

Burgess said he asked the Cooper twin to move away from his father but the ?verbal assault? continued.

?I moved in between my father and the twin and physically moved him out of the way,? he added.

The court then heard a struggle took place before Burgess punched the brother in the face, causing his nose to bleed.

?I physically grabbed him after that and pushed him out of the place.?

Burgess, 34, said the brother came back a week afterwards and apologised and said he had been drunk. ?After that everything seemed fine,? added Burgess. ?He came in the place almost every day after that with his brother.?

The trial has already heard how Burgess senior, now aged 65, was robbed in June, 2003 by four men who stole $2,500. A metal baseball bat was recovered from the scene.

An eyewitness to the alleged baseball bat attack at Crown Hill Lane last March has said he heard Jahmal denying robbing Burgess? ?old man? during the assault.

Burgess yesterday said he never found out who robbed his father and had no evidence that the twins were responsible. He added that the twins regularly visited the gambling den, where one of their friends, nicknamed Popeye, lived and had never been barred.

At the start of his evidence, Burgess told the court he had a small construction business, worked as a taxi driver and also operated and ran his father?s estate. This involved collecting rents, renovating properties, including the three-building Crown Hill Lane complex, and evicting bad tenants.

Burgess said a complex of buildings at Crown Hill Lane ? including the downstairs apartment where the twins were allegedly attacked ? was getting renovated. He said the downstairs apartment had been renovated for about six months before the alleged assault last March. Before that, Burgess said he asked the previous tenant to leave after drugs were used in the flat.

He told the court that after this tenant left, some of his previous friends continued to use the apartment. Asked about how secure the door was, the defendant said it could not be locked effectively and ?pretty much anyone could enter and exit?, including ?unsavoury characters?.

Asked about the rental property used as a gambling den on Elliott Street, Burgess said the week after he was arrested plans had been passed to turn the site into a take-out restaurant.

He admitted betting took place there, with crown and anchor, spades and dominoes played. But he said it was not a 24/7 operation.

Under cross examination, Burgess denied his father had any connection with the site, and that he used to gamble at home at Crown Hill Lane. Crown counsel Paula Tyndale later asked about income generated by the gambling operation, Burgess agreed the only purpose of crown and anchor was to earn income.

Mr. Griffiths asked Burgess if he knew Gladwyn Cann and Devario Whitter, two men who have already appeared in the trial as prosecution eyewitnesses. The defendant said he knew them and they used to go to the gambling den, but they were not friends of his.

He said he did not class Jahmal and Jahmil Cooper as friends, and said they hung around with Mr. Cann and Mr. Whitter and they all had links with Hamilton?s White Wall Crew gang.

Questioned about his friendship with co-accused Robinson, Burgess said he had known him at least 12 years but said, in recent times, they were not as close as they used to be.

The court had already heard that Burgess has two sons and had been married to his wife for five years.

Ms. Tyndale later asked about a daughter he had with another woman in late 2004, and said that the defendant?s relationship with his wife was ?not exactly perfect?.

Burgess agreed and said during the affair he sometimes lived at the upper apartment at Crown Hill Lane, where he kept clothing.

Meanwhile, the court heard how Burgess was fined $300 in April 2004 for impersonating a Police officer. Explaining the incident, the defendant said a driver pulled out in front of him on Middle Road, Warwick, and the vehicle he was in had to take evasive action to avoid an accident. Burgess said he told the driver he was with flash his lights to pull her over and when she stopped and got out of her car she asked Burgess if he was a Policeman.

The defendant said he wanted to ?shake her up a bit? so made the mistake of saying he was a law enforcer.

Burgess, 34, and Robinson, 34, of Southampton, deny murdering the twins on March 13 last year.

The trial continues.