A bricklayer who denies taking part in an attack on Kingston Mosque is “no angel” and lied to police during his interview, a court has heard.

Nine men accused of the attack in East Road on November 21, 2010, are currently on trial at Kingston Crown Court to deny the charges against them.

Martin Pottle, 23, a former Orleans Park School pupil from Feltham told the court he originally lied to police as he was hungover and scared of being remanded in custody as he was on bail in connection with another offence.

Earlier in the trial the court heard that in a police interview in January 2010 he had claimed he never went into East Road, but went to Sainsburys with a friend to buy cigarettes.

Accused of lying by the detective, he denied it.

But on Thursday he told the jury he had been lying all along.

He said: “I should have told the truth on the day. I was wrong. I didn’t have a solicitor and I just wanted to get in and out.”

He told the court, in the same words used by co-defendant Terry Earl, he was a “happy go lucky guy” who said he thought the group was looking for a pub to chat up girls after leaving the “boring” King’s Tun.

Mr Pottle was at the front of the group talking to Mr Earl, about “chit-chat” when they walked into East Road, the court heard.

He said: “As we got into East Road I noticed one or two had sticks but that’s why I stayed right back. It was obvious what was going to happen. I didn’t see no bottles.”

He said: “I didn’t see what happened but I saw people come running back up the road.”

Asked why he lifted his hood after the attack as he walked out of East Road, he said: “I didn’t want to be made to look like I was with this group.”

Prosecuter Gopal Hooper said: “You wanted to disguise yourself so you weren’t recognised.”

Mr Pottle said: “You could say that.”

But he denied attacking the mosque or urinating on it saying: “You have not got any evidence of me doing anything. I didn’t see nothing and I didn’t chuck nothing.

“How can I be bang to rights? You are guessing I was involved.”

The court also heard about his previous convictions, for disorderly behaviour in October 2006, April 2007, February 2010 and an incident of affray in 2011 with his co-defendant Paul Abley.

Mr Pottle said: “I admit I’m no angel.”

Later in the trial the jury were urged to use “common sense” when deciding the fate of nine defendants.

The prosecution say the case is one of joint enterprise commonly used in a bank robbery where the lookout, the driver and the robber are all equally guilty of the same crime.

In prosecutor Gopal Hooper’s closing statement on Friday, March 23, he said the accused had tried to fit their stories around the evidence against them.

He pointed to CCTV evidence showing the nine defendants leaving the King Tun pub and walking up Richmond Road as “one coherent group”.

The defendants admit being at the scene but say they “fell back” from the main mob that then attacked the mosque as they walked down the street towards it, a claim Mr Hooper described as convenient as there was no CCTV on that road.

He told the court: “To say they were going anywhere apart from the mosque is an affront to common sense.

“There is compelling CCTV evidence that shows [them] acting as a group walking towards the mosque.

“There was no deviation. They took the most direct route yet we are supposed to believe that when the CCTV is not on them they as one fell back from the main group. Very convenient.

“It is you that must use your common sense in this case, draw your own conclusion from the evidence submitted.”

The nine defendants’ counsel closing statements are expected to last until at least Monday with the jury expected to be sent out the next day.

David Morris, 21, of Epsom, Alfie Wallace, 19, of Shepperton, Terry Earl, 32, of Northolt, Adam Khalfan, 19, of Ashford, Paul Abley, 24, of Feltham, Karl Matthews, 21, of Brentford, Jordan Ellingham, 21, of Feltham, and James Stacey, 19, of Shepperton, Martin Pottle, 23, of Hanworth, all deny violent disorder, affray and racially-aggravated damage.