A SQUATTER found dead was seen rowing with a housemate the day before and was worried he would be attacked in revenge, a court heard.

Karol Krawczyk was seen having the quarrel with Mariusz Trybus at the squat they shared in The Red House, Frogmore Street, to the side of Bristol Ice Rink.

Fellow squatter Patrick Gusc told Bristol Crown Court he saw the altercation, and later his friend Krawczyk was concerned.

Mr Gusc told the jury: "He asked me whether I thought he should be afraid that Mariusz would want to take revenge on him.

"I said I didn't think so."

It is claimed 31-year-old Mr Krawczyk was "brutally" battered to death by two fellow Polish housemates as he lay on his bed in the room he used at the back of the dingy premises.

Trybus, 35, denies murder on December 12 last year, as does his partner Edyta Baranska, 20.

Mr Gusc said that after the exchange – in which Trybus ended up on the floor – he went to the library to use the internet but before he went Baranska came to his room and left a knife on his cupboard.

He told the court: "She said that Mariusz was angry and he wanted to kill someone.

"Before I left the house Karol was lying in bed, I don't remember what he was wearing.

"I went to the library."

Mr Gusc, who admitted he enjoyed drinking as did his fellow squatters, said he returned to the premises later.

He recounted how he went to use a public convenience at about 8pm, returned and Baranska came to his room for tobacco and seemed "fine and normal".

He told how Trybus and Baranska went out at about 11pm and later they came to his room several times.

He told the jury: "Edyta was asking me intensively whether I had seen Karol.

"Previously they had never asked me so inquisitively about whether I had seen him. I said I hadn't. I did not see him from the time I came back from the library."

Mr Gusc said around 6am the next day Trybus invited him to have a beer, he had one and then went back to bed.

He said: "After a while Mariusz and Edyta entered my room in a state of shock.

"They told me that something had happened to Karol. "I jumped out of bed and we went into Karol's bedroom and I saw Karol lying on the bed, all beaten up and bruised.

"I said a swear word, 'What have you done?'

"Mariusz said they hadn't done anything."

Mr Gusc said Baranska told him Trybus had simply gone to Krawczyk's room for a DVD.

He recalled how he touched his friend's arm and it was cold.

He said the three of them then went to the police station were they were arrested, and on the way Trybus said he was "going to jail".

Earlier the jury heard how Trybus and Baranska were found to have Mr Krawczyk's blood on their clothes.

The case continues.