MURDER accused Nathan Davis told police that he was "swinging his arms like windmills" with axes in his hand as he attacked a Staffordshire bull terrier dog.

The police interview of the 26-year-old, who denies murdering Craig Barker with an axe in the victim’s home in Cleatlam Close, Stockton, was read out at his trial at Teesside Crown Court.

He told officers he had let himself in to Ethan Branighan’s house, armed with axes, after his girlfriend told him Ethan had "battered" her.

He said on the police tape: “A dog, a Staffie was at the top of the stairs and it started to bite us so I whacked it with the axe.

“The dad came out of the bedroom. I was whacking the dog at the same time and I think I have cut him with the axe.

“He walked in the bedroom and shut the door. I found out later he was in hospital.”

He claimed he was armed with an axe "because I know what they are like with weapons and machetes and all that".

Davis allegedly went into the family’s home and killed the dog before delivering a fatal blow to Craig Barker, 47, Mr Branighan’s father.

He was sliced in a neck with a fatal blow from the axe.

Davis claims he struck him accidentally as Mr Barker tried to grab the dog and pull it off.

He said the dog, named Leo, had not actually bitten him but had snapped at his trouser leg, ripping it, so he started to hit it with the axe to prevent it biting him and ‘taking hold’.

He said he thought he had struck the dog about three times.

“I think he (Mr Barker) has leaned over and tried to pull the dog away from me,” Davis told police.

“I have been whacking the dog and he has been hit with the f******* axe.

“There were women screaming, you know what women are like, they just scream and scream and scream, don’t they?

“I was like a windmill with the axes, trying to stop the dog from biting me.”

He admitted to police he had self-prescribed muscle relaxant drugs for a bad knee before he went to the house.

He said he was only "in the house a couple of minutes" in total.

Davis denies one charge of murder and two counts of possessing an offensive weapon. The trial continues.