Former deputy senate president on trial in London for allegedly plotting to harvest a street trader’s kidney for his sick daughter has told the court he feared he was being “scammed”.

Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, daughter Sonia, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, are accused of conspiring to exploit the man for his body part.

Lawyers for the four previously told the trial at London’s central criminal court, also known as the Old Bailey, the alleged victim was acting “altruistically”.

The kidney was allegedly intended for Sonia, who remains on dialysis with a renal condition, in return for up to 7,000 pounds and the promise of a new life in Britain for the 21-year-old trader.