A MAN has told a jury that any claims he accidentally shot and killed his best friend as they went in tandem to pursue an unpaid debt are “ridiculous”.

Adrian Williams told Bradford Crown Court that he was “like a brother” to Tyron Charles, 29, who was shot dead at on a smallholding off Foster Park View, Denholme, on September 6 last year.

James Sutcliffe, 29, is on trial accused of murdering Mr Charles, but the defendant’s case is that it was another man, Adrian Williams, who pulled the trigger and later forced him to hide the body.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Williams told the court that he ran The Royal pub in Denholme, describing Mr Charles as his “business partner.”

He said that he and his friend both knew James Sutcliffe, calling him “Sutty”, but said they “were not close.”

Mr Williams said that in the run-up to the day of Mr Charles’s death, he had been contacting James Sutcliffe over debts linked to cars, including an Audi that the defendant had insured for the two men on his trader’s policy.

The court heard police had seized and crushed the car for an insurance offence, leading to Mr Williams and Mr Charles blaming James Sutcliffe for the loss of its value, around £1,500.

On September 6, the pair confronted James Sutcliffe on his allotment, with Mr Williams admitting to the court that he “did go for him”.

He told the court that Mr Charles had calmed him down and told him to go back to the pub, where he would meet him after going to James Sutcliffe’s home address to collect the money.

Asked by prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC what had happened when he left the scene, Mr Williams said: “I drove up to the top of the road but I had a bad feeling so I pulled over and I rung him (Mr Charles) up.”

When asked what Mr Charles said in response, he said his friend had told him: “Don’t be daft, it’s just Sutty”. He then told the jury: “That is the last conversation I ever had with him (Mr Charles).”

Mr Williams said that after his friend didn’t return to the pub, he spoke to James Sutcliffe, who said Mr Charles had hit him in the face as he handed over some of the money he owed.

He said that James Sutcliffe told him he had dropped Mr Charles off at the end of his road and hadn’t seen him again.

Richard Wright QC, defending James Sutcliffe, asked Mr Williams about text messages he had sent to the defendant in the days before Mr Charles was killed.

He said the messages were linked to cropping cannabis, selling cocaine, and chasing up the debts that James Sutcliffe owed.

Asked whether he was a drug dealer, Mr Williams repeatedly replied: “No.”

Mr Wright said to him: “You were upset he was giving you the runaround with the money”, to which he responded: “He kept saying he were gonna come and pay the money but he never turned up.”

The jury heard that one message contained threats about breaking James Sutcliffe’s arm, with another stating: “We’re coming for you. Hide lad. F**king hide.”

Mr Williams said: “I was just trying to scare him so he paid my money.”

Mr Wright put it to Mr Williams that he and Mr Charles had gone into a shipping container belonging to James Sutcliffe to check on cannabis growing equipment and said that once inside, Mr Williams had pulled out a shotgun.

He said that during an ensuing struggle, Mr Williams had accidentally shot Mr Charles.

In response, Mr Williams said: “That’s a lie. I never killed Ty. I can look in his kids eyes. It’s ridiculous.”

The jury has previously heard that Mr Charles’s body was buried on the moors, with police only discovering its location after secretly bugging conversations in prison in which James Sutcliffe spoke of the crime to his parents – Kevin and Janet Sutcliffe, aged 60 and 62 – and the three spoke of “destroying” the corpse.

Using details given by James Sutcliffe during the conversation, police were able to trace the route he took to dispose of the body, and remains of Mr Charles were found in a boggy area of moorland off Nab Water Lane on October 11.

During Mr Williams’ evidence, the court heard he had travelled to France in the days after the shooting, but he said he had gone there to check whether Mr Charles, who he thought was missing at the time, had been using his holiday home there.

The jury was also told that when police visited the pub to try and recover CCTV evidence, Mr Williams admitted he had destroyed the equipment, which he said was down to wanting to dispose footage of a party held at the pub involving female escorts.

Mr Wright said that James Sutcliffe, acting “in fear”, agreed to hide the body on the moors, with Mr Williams later telling him to create a false trail of messages to cover the pair’s tracks and “keep him on side.”

In response, Mr Williams said: “No, not at all. It’s not true. I thought he was a missing person. I never thought he’d have been dead.”

James Sutcliffe denies a charge of murder. All three defendants, of Hill Crest Road, Denholme, deny a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The trial continues.