Thomas Valliday, the man accused of murdering veteran republican and named IRA killer Francis Bap McGreevy, has told a court he can't remember whether he killed him or not.
Valliday, who turned 22 last week, also claimed that he did not think himself "capable" of attacking Mr McGreevy in his Ross Street flat on March 15, 2008.
Earlier Valliday, who admitted he was on the run from the Young Offenders' Centre at the time, said that while high on a cocktail of drink and drugs "you can't remember anything ... they blank you out".
He told his lawyer Philip Magee SC that he "can't remember" anything that happened that day save for "scuffling" with the 51-year-old father of two outside his flat, and later seeing two men running from the vicinity of his home.
Valliday said the next thing he "actually" remembers was being told that there was a carload of people looking for him.
At one stage while being pressed by Mr Kerr about his alleged sighting of two men running from the flat, Valliday refused to answer any further questions.
Valliday, who admitted that he had "told lies", said to Mr Kerr: "I have nothing else to say to you".
Valliday also claimed Mr McGreevy dragged him across the ground and hitting him with a stick.
"He was trying to pull me into his door.... I don't know if I went in or not, but I remember I hit him.... I remember punching him and he fell in the back door....I legged it," Valliday said.
When Mr Maggee initially opened the defence case he took most unusual step of directly addressing the jury telling them that either Valliday didn't murder the IRA man, but if he did, he did so in self-defence.
The lawyer said that Mr McGreevy who served 14 years of three life sentences for an IRA pub bombing, was named as an IRA man, not to "trash" his character, but to explain why Valliday may have been in "fear and trepidation" of him and why he may have lied to police.
Mr McGreevy died in hospital three days after being found brutally beaten by his teenage son.
© UTV News