An illegal immigrant bludgeoned two men to death with a hammer in Shropshire because they were “bullying” him, a court has heard.

Sukhdev Singh lost his temper and killed his victims after he feared they were going to “assault me sexually”, Stafford Crown Court was told.

Jurors yesterday heard how he hit one of them with a hammer beside his bed in the flat above Shawbury Fish Bar, Drayton Road, Shawbury, and followed the other and hit him in the dark.

Mr Stephen Linehan QC, prosecuting, said Sukhdev Singh, 26, also used a ligature to kill 30-year-old Jaswant Singh, known as Jim, and 31-year-old Kulwant Singh, known as John.

Sukhdev Singh denies murdering the men between December 5 and 8 last year.

Mr Linehan told the court that about three months before the double murder, the pair had stripped Sukhdev Singh and touched his private parts.

“He said they did that again on the Saturday night in the flat – the Saturday night before the killing on the Thursday,” Mr Linehan said.

He added on the Thursday night, Sukhdev Singh claimed they had told him to make supper and were “up to their usual tricks” so he went to bed but they came into his bedroom making him lose his temper and fear a sexual assault.

The case continues.