A MAN who was arrested on suspicion of murder and released without charge has vowed ‘I’m innocent’.

Antony Ing was at home in Westbourne with Jevgenij Pisciuliov before the Lithuanian was found fatally injured in the stairwell outside the flat.

Mr Ing said he did hit the 32-year-old when he refused to leave but did not cause the injuries that killed him.

“I’m an innocent man, I did not kill him,” said Mr Ing, 37.

“I’ve had a nightmare and been through hell.”

Mr Ing, known as ‘Swanny’, said he asked the man and his brother to leave as he was going to see his girlfriend in hospital after she had suffered a broken back.

“He walked out of my flat and fell down the stairs,” Mr Ing said.

“I’d said ‘please leave, I’ve got to go and see my girlfriend’ but he wouldn’t go.”

Mr Ing said his brother was happy to leave but Mr Pisciuliov refused.

“So yes, I admit I did administer a bit of violence,” Mr Ing added.

“I did hit him.

“Then he walked out and I heard what I thought was him stomping down the stairs in disgust because I would not let him stay.”

“I didn’t push him.”

Mr Pisciuliov was found still alive by a neighbour at the flats above Arrowedge Retail Chemists in Poole Road on Saturday.

He was taken to Poole Hospital with serious head and chest injuries and transferred to Southampton Hospital, where he died of a brain haemorrhage.

Mr Ing said when he left to see his girlfriend he saw Mr Pisciuliov in the stairwell.

“I checked he was breathing and his pulse was OK so I thought he was just drunk and had banged his head and I went to hospital.

“When I came back there was nobody here but there was blood on the stairwell and I thought he cracked his head open.”

Mr Ing said he then went to see friends and fell asleep there.

“The next day I came back and got arrested on suspicion of murder,” he said.

“That was a big shock.”

Mr Ing was homeless ‘on and off’ for 11 years before he moved into his flat last year.

He feels he is being victimised.

He has received an eviction letter and is worried about dealing with his diabetes and losing his possessions if he becomes homeless again.

Det Insp Marcus Hester, of Dorset Police , said officers were continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mr Pisciuliov’s death and said they were awaiting the results of forensic examinations.