A publican has denied erasing crucial spy camera f

A publican has denied erasing crucial spy camera footage of a vicious murder committed outside his pub.

Ronald Perkins, 57, is said to have deleted a vital three minutes of a drunken brawl in which a young drinker was battered to death and another severely injured.

The alleged incident occurred on June 16 last year when Mr Perkins was running the Litten Tree Pub, in Holloway Road, north London.

Grahame Thomas, 21, and his pal Richard Shillibeer, 30, were beaten with bats and knives by a gang of nine outside the pub following a trivial incident in the bar.

Mr Shillibeer was surrounded and stabbed but survived the violent attack.

But Mr Thomas was left lying on the pavement with horrific injuries and died several days later.

Ryan Nugent, of Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, and Michael Savva, of Hectoridge Road, Tunbridge, Kent, were both sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year after a jury convicted them of murder.

Mr Perkins, of (8) Tuffnell Park Mansions, Holloway Road, Holloway, pleaded not guilty to one charge of doing an act tending or intending to pervert the course of public justice on June 16 last year.

A trial date was not arranged today after prosecution and defence lawyers said experts are still to assess video evidence in the case.

Mr Perkins was remanded on bail and will return to the Old Bailey on July 27.

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