A TEENAGE Muslim who allegedly took part in beating Henry Webster with a hammer said he wanted to "sort Webster out" but denied using a weapon, a court heard yesterday.

Victim Henry Webster, 16, was punched, kicked and smashed repeatedly on the head with the hammer on a tennis court at Ridgeway School, in Wroughton.

He suffered three skull fractures and still has short-term memory loss and blackouts caused by the resulting brain damage.

Amjad Qazi, 19, said he entered the tennis court with the intention of sorting Henry Webster out in a fair fight and denied using the hammer.

Qazi claimed that his former friend Wasif Khan, 18, was the person who actually carried out the attack in January last year.

He claimed he would never have entered the tennis courts if he had known Khan was carrying a hammer.

Instead, he claims Khan punched Henry in the head before pulling out a claw hammer.

He told Bristol Crown Court: "Wasif Khan took out a hammer from his coat. I didn't know he had a weapon with him.

"If I had known he had a hammer I wouldn't have got involved. He took the hammer out and hit him over the head.

"I had gone to the tennis courts to sort Henry Webster out after someone started swearing at us. I had thought it would have been a one-on-one fight."

During the trial, the pair have blamed one another for carrying out the hammer attack.

The court heard Qazi believed he had been set-up by his former close family friend.

The court heard Qazi had approached a group of pupils on January 11 with Khan and two other defendants, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Qazi said he felt angry when the group started shouting offensive words.

He claimed he did not know who was responsible but said Webster was blamed.

He said he did not touch Henry after Wasif came running from behind him and launched the attack.

He said: "When I saw Wasif bring out the hammer I just couldn't believe what was happening.

"I stopped walking towards Henry Webster and walked away.

"I walked back to the car and waited for the rest of the group. When we were driving away from the school grounds nobody said anything about the attack.

"However, Wasif was very quiet. I didn't want to talk to him about the attack. I was still shocked by what had happened and a little bit scared."

The court heard that while driving back into Swindon, a member of the group asked "Was that the right guy?" which met with no reply.

Qazi also told the jury that Khan had changed his clothes when they returned to Swindon.

Qazi claimed that he did not change his clothes because there was no need to.

He added: "I was a little bit worried about what happened, but in the back of my mind I knew I had done nothing wrong. I knew that I hadn't been involved."

James Patrick, prosecuting, said Qazi was lying and only wanted to protect himself.

The trial is expected to finish next Wednesday.