Warning: Details of the testimony may be disturbing

The man accused of killing, dismembering and dumping the partial remains of a woman behind a Riverdale butcher shop in 2016 took the stand in his own defence today.

Albert Ian Ohab has pleaded guilty to committing an indignity to the body of Melissa Cooper.

However, he pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, also laid in connection with her death.

A woman’s torso was discovered inside a garbage bag, dumped behind a butcher shop near Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street on April 19, 2016.

Police later identified the remains as belonging to 30-year-old Cooper. She had been reported missing several weeks prior to the grisly discovery.

Ohab was first arrested on April 29 and charged with second-degree murder on Aug. 19.

Surveillance video played during the trial Tuesday showed the pair riding up the elevator to Ohab’s apartment. The pair can be seen hugging.

During his testimony, Ohab claimed Cooper came to his place to borrow a crack pipe. He said she overdosed on crack cocaine in his apartment.

He told the court that while Cooper was doing drugs in his bathroom, he shot up heroin on his bed and eventually passed out.

Ohab testified that he woke up in the morning to the smell of vomit and found Cooper lying down on the living room floor.

“I go over to feel her neck. She is cold,” he said. “I start to freak out.”

“I make a decision to put her in the stairwell.”

Ohab told the court that drug users sometimes dump a person in a stairwell when they overdose. He said he tried to do that, but spotted his neighbour in the area and got spooked.

Ohab called the circumstances a “perfect storm.”

He testified that a few months earlier, his then-girlfriend had overdosed and died in the same apartment, and neighbours had spread rumours that he was responsible.

“(The) last thing I wanted to do was get caught with a corpse in my apartment,” he testified.

Instead, Ohab said, he brought Cooper back to his bathroom, put her in the tub and dismembered her body.

When asked by the Crown why he didn’t call police, Ohab said it was because he thought Cooper was already dead.

“You're not a doctor, wouldn't it be reasonable to get help?” the Crown prosecutor asked.

“It was past that (point), she was cold, blue and stiff,” Ohab responded.

Surveillance footage from the building shows Ohab entering the lobby a few days after the death, with a gym bag. He claimed during his testimony that he had a saw inside the bag.

Another video played during the trial shows Ohab walking out of the building with a cart. He admitted to the court that the footage shows him on his way to dispose of her torso.

When asked by his lawyer if he killed Cooper, Ohab responded: “Absolutely not.”

Police have not released many other details pertaining to the investigation. It is not clear what led police to arrest Ohab.

-With files from CTV News Toronto’s Austin Delaney