MURDER accused Louis Borzoni offered no evidence in his defence in court yesterday.

Alongside Paul Gerlach, 51, the 50-year-old is accused of killing Rico Dardis when the three were at sea on speedboat No Chance on May 27 last year.

Representing Borzoni at Winchester Crown Court, Patrick Gibbs QC said he would offer no evidence, and confirmed when asked by the judge that his client under-stood the jury would be entitled to draw their own inferences from this.

The body of Mr Dardis, 30, of Hawkwood Mews, Boscombe, was found washed up near groynes at Seaway Avenue, Friar’s Cliff, Christchurch, beside the boat on the day of the alleged killing.

His cause of death was re-corded by a coroner as drown-ing, and he also suffered injuries from a boat propeller.

The court also heard the rest of Gerlach’s defence.

He was played a covert recording police made of him speaking with his estranged wife, in which prosecutor Michael Bowes QC suggested he confessed to murdering Mr Dardis by deliberately driving the speed boat over him.

“You and Lou pushed him to the back and left him bobbing around for a while, then you were both in agreement about what to do next,” he said.

“That’s how you describe it to her. You both murdered Rico Dardis together didn’t you?”

Gerlach denied this.

Borzoni, of Hamilton Road, Boscombe, and Gerlach, of no fixed abode, deny murder.

The trial continues today.