A MAN accused of pushing a student to his death from a city centre bridge told a jury he had tried to save the teenager as he fell.

Christopher Weldon is said to have bundled 18-year-old John Chipp off the Queen Alexander bridge in Sunderland during a scuffle in the early hours of March 19.

But Mr Weldon, 28, told jurors how the stranger had attacked him before falling over the bridge railings and plunging to his death.

Taxi driver Mr Weldon said he tried to grab hold of the student but could not stop him falling.

Weldon told how he had gone to the bridge to kill himself following a disagreement with his wife.

But he changed his mind and was then attacked by Mr Chipp.

He said as he tried to defend himself Mr Chipp fell over the railings.

Mr Weldon said he did not see or hear the student go into the water. He added:"I looked but I couldn't see, it was too dark."

Mr Weldon said he originally intended to alert the police.

But he added: "The police would have put two and two together and come up with ten."

He said that after a while he started to doubt whether the run- in with the stranger had happened at all and put it to the back of his mind.

Mr Weldon, of Parkhurst Road, Sunderland, denies murder and the trial continues.