A TEENAGER yesterday denied kicking and punching a schoolboy in a “savage” attack.

Giving evidence at Oxford Crown Court, Saqab Dogar told the jury he was at the scene of the attack in St Nicholas Road, Littlemore, Oxford, but did not take part in the assault.

The 18-year-old said his friend Amir Hamza hit the boy, who cannot be named, in the face and knocked him to the ground.

He said he then watched a gang of other people he did not know kick the 14-year-old boy during the attack in January last year.

Dogar said: “They were people I did not know that were doing the kicking.”

He said one of them hit the boy with a metal pole.

“I did not play any part in the attack whatsoever,” he added.

He denied claims by Peter Coombe, defending, that a knife was used in the attack.

Asking him why he made no comment in his interview with police after the attack, Mr Coombe said: “It must have been galling for you to have been accused of being involved in this savage attack.”

Dogar said he had been advised by his solicitor not to answer the police’s questions.

Dogar, from Abington, in Northamptonshire, denies wounding with intent.

Amir Hamza, 18, of Ridgefield Road, East Oxford, has admitted the same charge.

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard the victim had received cuts to the head, a cracked cheekbone and bruises.

The case continues.