A Suffolk man accused of mugging a woman aged in her 80s after seeing her withdraw £200 from a post office in Bury St Edmunds claimed another man was responsible, a court heard.

Robert Duke told police following his arrest that after visiting a post office in Lake Avenue in Bury St Edmunds he had bumped into a man he knew as "Bos" who told him he owed money to a drug dealer.

Duke said he had then crossed the road and asked an elderly woman for directions to Anglian Lane.

As he carried on walking he heard a woman shouting: "No. You're not taking that."

He said shortly afterwards "Bos" ran past him with a T-shirt round his face.

"I thought he'd robbed her. I don't know if he was holding anything. He didn't stop to talk to me," said Duke.

He said he felt he should have done something to help the woman and had later called at a house close to where the robbery took place to ask how she was.

Duke, 35, of Broad Road, Bacton, and Kyle Haggerty, 26, of no fixed address, both deny robbing the woman of her handbag, money, bankcard and personal items on June 27.

The court has heard the alleged victim was grabbed from behind and pushed to the ground during the robbery in Tennyson Road, Bury St Edmunds.

Gavin Pottinger, prosecuting, said the woman felt someone pulling the handle of her bag and she suffered a cut finger as a result of struggling to stop it being taken by her attacker.

Mr Pottinger told the court that after their arrests the defendants each said the other had carried out the robbery.

He alleged that Duke had been in the post office queue behind the victim when she withdrew £200 and was seen to follow her along Tennyson Road.

Mr Pottinger said that Haggerty's DNA was found on a watch found at the scene of the robbery and he had pleaded guilty to using the victim's stolen bankcard 90 minutes after the robbery.

The court heard that Haggerty told police he had sold a watch found at the scene of the robbery to Duke on the day of the robbery and blamed Duke for the mugging.

He said Duke had given him a bank card and he had unsuccessfully tried to get cash with it for Duke.

The trial continues.