A friend of the Cooper twins has denied claims the brothers were gangsters who used to beat up and terrorise people.

Prosecution witness Gladwyn Cann also rejected allegations the brothers ?had a number of enemies?.

Mr. Cann was pressed on the subject during detailed cross-examination yesterday from Courtney Griffiths QC, representing Kenneth Burgess, one of two men accused of murdering the twins last year. Responding to Mr. Griffiths? claims, Mr. Cann told the court: ?They (the twins) were not liked by people who did not know them.?

But Mr. Griffiths said the reason the 20-year-old twins were unpopular was because they ?habitually went around beating up people and terrorising people around Hamilton?. He said the brothers were a ?gang?, which he said had included their older brother Rashad Cooper, and possibly Mr. Cann and others.

Mr. Cann also rejected defence claims that when he and the twins regularly ?hung out? on Elliott Street they were selling or using drugs.

Burgess, 33, and Dennis Alma Robinson, 34, both deny double murder on March 13, 2005. Mr. Cann told the court on Monday that the twins were driven from an illegal gambling den in Elliott Street to an apartment in Crown Hill Lane.

He claimed they were then beaten by Burgess in the early hours of March 13, last year.

They were not seen alive after that date, the court was told.

The eyewitness ? a close friends of the twins and their family ? said Burgess had accused the brothers of robbing and beating Burgess?s father before violence flared.

And Mr. Cann ? who said on the night in question that Jahmil was drunk but Jahmal was not ? told the trial yesterday that this was not the first time he had heard that subject raised between the twins and Burgess.

He said that either one or two years ago, he heard a conversation in the Elliott Street gambling den ? which the prosecution claim is operated by Burgess ? in which Jahmil denied robbing Burgess? ?old man?.

Mr. Cann said Burgess then got ?angry? and attacked Jahmil. ?He rushed him and slapped him to the ground,? the court was told.

The witness claimed Burgess then started kicking Jahmil and he had tried to get in between, but the defendant pushed him off. Mr. Cann said Burgess? father, who the court heard only has one eye, had witnessed the fracas.

But during cross-examination Mr. Griffiths gave a different version of events. He said Jahmil had been drunk when he approached Burgess? father. The defence counsel added that Jahmil then accused Burgess? father of telling people that he was responsible for robbing him, and then effectively threatened him.

Mr. Griffiths said Jahmil was unaware the defendant Burgess was in the club at the time. And Mr. Griffiths said that after hearing the threats issued to his father, Burgess assaulted Jahmil in an attack that left the twin brother bleeding.

Mr. Griffiths also questioned why ? during some 18 months after robbery was reported ? the twins had been regularly allowed into the gambling den without protest from Burgess. Mr. Cann agreed the brothers went into the premises ?without any fear?.

The QC also asked why Mr. Cann was willing to step in when trouble flared at the gambling den over the robbery row, but questioned why no physical attempt was made to stop Burgess during the alleged violence at Crown Hill Lane last March.

During hours of detailed cross-examination in Supreme Court One yesterday morning and afternoon, Mr. Griffiths also asked the witness why he did not call his close friend Rashad Cooper when he arrived home at 6 a.m. after fleeing the Crown Hill Lane apartment in fear. Mr. Cann said he went to sleep after trying to call Mr. Cooper?s cell phone, which was not working.

The defence counsel asked Mr. Cann why he did not phone the Police until some 15 hours after witnessing such a ?vicious attack?. The court heard Mr. Cann was later taken to the Police station by the twins? mother and her boyfriend.

Mr. Cann said Rashad Cooper came to his house at about 3 p.m. on March 13. But he denied a claim from Mr. Griffiths that Mr. Cooper threatened the witness with violence or assaulted him in an attempt to make him go to Police and give a statement.

?Were it not for the actions of Rashad you would not have gone to the Police,? said Mr. Griffiths.

?That?s not true,? replied Mr. Cann.

Mr. Griffiths later claimed differences between what the witness had said in court and what he told detectives made his account of what happened to the twins at Crown Hill Lane a ?pack of lies?. Mr. Cann said he could not control what notes were made by Police during interviews.

John Perry QC, for Robinson, also pointed to what he claimed were discrepancies in what Mr. Cann had told the court and what he had said to Police.

Mr. Perry added that at no time did Mr. Cann see his client assault anybody.

The trial continues.