A MAN accused of murdering a drug dealer has denied giving him a Northern Ireland style “punishment beating” over an unpaid debt.

Euan Peters rejected claims he was hired to dish out a paramilitary type pounding to Shafiul Islam in Newport which later led to his death.

The defendant is on trial with two other men who are all accused of killing the alleged victim two years ago.

Peters, 42, from Dros-y-Morfa, Rumney, Cardiff, Conlan Dunnion, 23, of Maesglas Avenue, Newport, and Perrie Dunwell, 33, of Cold Mill Road, Newport, deny murder.

It is alleged the trio killed Mr Islam, who was nicknamed ‘Chilly’, following a planned robbery at his home in the Shaftesbury area.

Peters has been described during the Newport Court Crown trial as an “enforcer”.

Under cross-examination, he was asked if he had heard of punishment beatings which had taken place in Northern Ireland.

The defendant replied he had.

Mark Wyeth QC, prosecuting, said these kind of attacks were ones “which send out a message out in the community”.

He put it to Peters: “Were you told to give Chilly a really good beating?”

The defendant answered: “No one was told to do anything.”

The jury has heard Mr Islam may have owed a £10,000 debt to Dunwell which the prosecution claims was being forcibly collected that night.

Peters has admitted conspiracy to rob Mr Islam in Tewkesbury Walk on November 14, 2019.

Dunnion and Dunwell have pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

When he opened the case to the jury, Mr Wyeth said Mr Islam died after he was repeatedly hit over the head with a Kopparberg cider bottle.

He told the jury: “The prosecution’s case is that he was killed during the course of a robbery – a planned robbery.

“The robbery was planned and carried out by all three of these defendants.

"Perrie Dunwell drove Peters to the scene. He arranged for Dunnion to open the communal door in order that the robbery could be carried out.

“He drove Peters and Dunnion away from the scene.

“He was the link to Peters, a man who described himself as an ‘enforcer’.”

Mr Wyeth added: “Euan Peters, the prosecution say, hit him with the bottle of Kopparberg he’d taken earlier from a restaurant.

“There’s strong forensic evidence that links that broken bottle to Mr Peters.

“That was a deliberate, gratuitous and violent attack that was made by him with the concurrence of his two co-defendants.

“Mr Islam was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital.

“A CT scan indicated that he had suffered ‘a devastating brain injury’.

“Sadly, he never regained consciousness and died on Wednesday, November 20, 2019. He was just 22 years old.

“Mr Islam was the defendants’ target because he was a drug dealer.”

The trial before Mrs Justice Jefford continues.