A gay man accused of murdering his former lover by dousing him in petrol and setting him on fire has said his Muslim friend tried to frame him after finding out he was homosexual.

Nadim Kurrimbukus, 25, also known as Adam, denies setting fire to 23-year-old Charlie Davies outside his home in Templedene Avenue, Staines, at 11.20pm on June 14 last year.

His co-accused Yusuf Dulloo, 27, said in a police interview he drove with Kurrimbukus to Mr Davies’ home on the same night and heard a scream after his friend had left the car, but he denied any knowledge of the attack.

But the following day they met at Hounslow train station where Kurrimbukus confessed to him that he “lit the guy”, Dulloo told detectives.

Kurrimbukus, a former West Thames College and Isleworth and Syon School pupil, told Kingston Crown Court this week that his Muslim friend was lying to punish him after discovering he was gay.

Dressed smartly in a suit and tie and wearing glasses, he said: “In Islam you are not allowed to be gay. There’s such a thing as an honour killing. Dulloo’s lying as a punishment. He is trying to punish me after he found out about my sexuality.”

He admitted he asked a friend to give him a false alibi on the night of the fire attack as he knew he had been in Staines with Dulloo, and was terrified he would be blamed.

Mr Davies died of burns to 75 per cent of his body on June 26.

Kurrimbukus, of Heath Road, Hounslow, and Dulloo, of Ashton Gardens, Hounslow, are both deny murder and a separate charge of arson.

Kurrimbukus told detectives, as Mr Davies was fighting for life in a specialist burns unit at East Grinstead Hospital, he had wanted to collect a phone charger from Mr Davies’ house but they left before his ex-boyfriend returned home from work.

He initially lied to officers about where he had been that evening, but later admitted he was in Templedene Avenue minutes before the attack.

He said they parked out of site from Mr Davies’ house so his mother would not see him, and because he did not want Dulloo - who did not know he was gay - to see Mr Davies.

He said: “He [Dulloo] hates gays, he makes no qualms about it. That’s why he couldn’t see Charlie.”

He told the jury that he went to central London with Mr Davies and two friends on May 11 last year, where they later met up with Dulloo who gave them a lift home.

He said: “Yusuf was unaware that anything was going between Charlie and I, and at one point he assumed and made a comment that if he had known Charlie was gay he would not have allowed him in his vehicle.”

David Williams QC, defending Kurrimbukus, said: “Was it difficult to tell that Charlie was gay?”

Kurrimbukus replied: “Not at all.”

The court heard Dulloo told police on June 20 that he sat in the car on the night of the attack as Kurrimbukus got something out of the boot and went to meet Mr Davies.

He said: “I’m listening to the radio and then I hear kind of like a scream... then he comes back and he is like as if he has been running. But I didn’t account that to anything to do with the screaming.”

He added: “He was like out of breath, either hyperactive or out of breath or something like that.”

Kurrimbukus claimed his relationship with Mr Davies was “better than ever” in the weeks before the attack, and they had planned to go to the cinema together that weekend.

The trial continues.