A partner in a Bradford firm of solicitors, who was representing suspects in a gang shooting murder, persuaded an important prosecution witness to change his story, a jury heard.

Rashid Majid met the witness on a park bench and took a new statement which contradicted what he had told police, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Majid, 38, a partner with Khan solicitors, was representing three men accused of the murder of Bradford father-of-four Shazad Hussain.

The 21-year-old restaurant worker was shot dead as he sat in his car in an alleyway off Amberley Street, Leeds Road, Bradford, in September 2004.

Opening the case yesterday, prosecuting barrister Tom Bayliss, QC, said that Majid and three other Bradford men - Azad Yaqub, 24, of Silverhill Road; Majid Ashiq, 31, of Rushton Terrace; and Kashif Tahir, 27, of Grange Avenue, all Thornbury - had attempted to undermine the murder trial.

Mr Bayliss told the jury: "The four men agreed to pursue a course of conduct designed, if they had succeeded, in perverting the course of justice in relation to the murder trial.

"They set out to achieve their objective by dissuading two crucial witnesses, brothers Mazhar Iqbal and Adnan Ahmed, from giving evidence at the trial in accordance with what they had said to police, so what they had said to police was rendered worthless."

Majid, Yaqub, Ashiq and Tahir, have all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Bayliss said the murder of Mr Hussain was set against the background of a dispute between two gangs in the Leeds Road area of Bradford and members of the public were reluctant to give information to police.

But there was a breakthrough in the summer of 2005 when Mr Iqbal was arrested in connection with the supply of class A drugs and decided to better his position by giving two statements to police on what he knew about the murder, and implicating Mohammed Niaz Khan, Abid Ashiq Hussain, Sharaz Yaqub and Abdul Wahid Rehman.

He told police the shooting had been planned with the purpose of shooting Mr Hussain in the legs and Niaz Khan had pulled the trigger.

In July 2006 police arrested Khan, Abid Ashiq Hussain - the brother of Majid Ashiq - and Rehman, and charged them with murder. Sharaz Yaqub, the brother of Azad Yaqub, was in Luxembourg.

Mr Bayliss said the two statements of Mr Iqbal, who had been jailed for the drugs offences, and one from a detective sergeant, who had been given important information by Adnan Ahmed, were disclosed to the defence solicitor, Majid.

The prosecutor said: "It would have been plain from those statements that the prosecution was alleging three men were present and directly involved in the shooting and another had an organisational role. It would also have been plain just how crucial the statements of Mazhar Iqbal were to the case."

The suspects and their associates got to know what the two brothers had done and meetings were arranged between Mr Ahmed and Azad Yaqub, Majid Ashiq and Kashif Tahir during which promises of money and veiled threats were made and the brothers were encouraged to change their stories, Mr Bayliss said.

Mr Ahmed was persuaded to call Majid and they went to Bradford Moor Park where the solicitor showed Mr Ahmed the statements.

Mr Bayliss said: "Rashid Majid told him to say that the police had forced him to say what he had said and the police had been harassing him.

"Adnan Ahmed should say he had spoken to Mazhar Iqbal, they had got their heads together and Mazhar Iqbal had made it up and Adnan Ahmed's account was manufactured to back him up because he had done a deal with the police.

"He was a solicitor in the case, discussing with a potential witness in the case the evidence in the case."

Mr Ahmed made a fresh statement in the park in which he said he had lied to the police and claiming he had no knowledge of the murder.

Mr Bayliss said that before leaving the park the solicitor told Mr Ahmed to tell his brother to fax him a letter asking him to visit him in prison. He added: "Rashid Majid said once the court knew about the retraction in their giving evidence the murder case would be dropped."

Khan, Abid Hussain and Sharaz Yaqub were all convicted of murder last year and jailed for a total of 88 years. Rehman was acquitted.

The trial continues.