A MAN accused of killing his partner’s two-year-old son told a court he “loved him” and would "never lay a finger on him.”

Joseph Eke, 22, is accused of murdering Harry House on May 26 last year by fatally kicking and punching the Broadmayne toddler while his mother, Lauren O’Neill, was out at the shop.

Yesterday, Eke took the stand to give evidence in his trial at Winchester Crown Court, telling the jury that he loved Harry and the child called him ‘Daddy Joe Joe’.

Eke said: “I cared for him, I enjoyed doing it. I put him to bed, read him books, played with him with his toys and that.”

Jurors previously heard that Harry died from blunt force trauma to his abdomen, which split his pancreas in two, and a fractured skull.

Speaking from the witness box Eke – who the jury heard had been a heroin addict – said the whole time Miss O’Neill had been at the shop he had been lying on the sofa whilst Harry was upstairs playing in his room.

He said the first time he saw Harry again was when Miss O’Neill returned and asked him to go upstairs and check on him. 

He told the jury that when he got to the door of the child’s room Harry “stood up, looked over and said Joe Joe I feel sick.”

Christopher Quinlan QC, defending, asked Eke how he felt when Miss O’Neill called an ambulance and Harry was rushed to hospital.

Eke said: “I was panicking. One minute everything was normal, the next minute the ambulance are there and Harry’s stopped breathing in the space of an hour.

“I didn’t kill him, I wouldn’t kill him, I wouldn’t harm a kid.”

The jury heard that after Harry was taken to hospital, Eke sent a number of text messages to his mother saying “Harry’s in a bad way”, before pleading “Mum please pick up I’m scared.”

Eke told the jury he had been in foster care between the ages of 10 and 16 but had a loving relationship with his parents and was never beaten as a child.

He said since he had moved in to Miss O’Neill’s Main Street home with Harry in March last year he had “settled down” and was enjoying family life.

The court heard that in a police interview the day of Harry’s death, Eke said: “I didn’t touch that boy, I didn’t lay a finger on him. 

“I have said from the get go, it is like I said to Lauren, I know I didn’t do that which leaves one other person.”

Jurors were previously told that Eke was convicted of two counts of battery against Miss O’Neill in July last year and were shown CCTV footage of the assault. 

On cross-examination prosecutor Adam Feest QC asked Eke why the couple had been arguing.

Eke said: “We were arguing about drugs. It was a heated argument, we were both drug dependant, I couldn’t get no drugs and she was going on at me.
“I was a heroin addict, my life depended on it. I was on drugs then, I’m not a violent person.”

Eke is also accused of unlawfully wounding the child and causing grievous bodily harm. He denies all the charges.

The trial continues.