A MAN accused of pushing a teenager through a window causing a shard of glass to puncture his chest said he was trying to be a peacemaker, a court has heard.

David Mears, was giving evidence at the second day of a trial where he is accused of unlawful wounding. He denies the charge.

The 54-year-old, of Northesk Street, Stoke, was at the scene outside the St Luke's Hospice shop on the junction of Molesworth Road and Devonport Road on April 28 last year with his friend who had received a call from his son saying he had been attacked by a gang, the jury at Plymouth Crown Court heard yesterday.

Mears said he was holding on to the alleged victim, aged 16, after an argument erupted.

"I went there trying to be a mediator," Mears told the court.

"But instead it turned into a circus. I was a peacemaker; there was no intention of anybody getting hurt on that day."

Mears said he was holding on to the alleged victim when he was punched in the stomach and spun round – with the teen – towards the window which then smashed. He said he then left the scene, believing that the teen was uninjured, before being arrested later.

"I was in a police cell with people telling me a young lad had gone through a window and was seriously hurt," he told the court. "All I wanted to know was that young lad was safe and ok. He didn't deserve what happened to him on that day."

The trial continues.