A drug dealer told a jury how he shot a "bully" drugs supplier as he laid injured on the ground.

Nicholas Hickson, 32, who said "animal" Philip Smith had made his life a torture for three years, killed him with a double-barrelled shotgun in a country lay-by near Bradford.

Plumber Hickson, who denies murder, told the jury at Leeds Crown Court that the gun went off twice as Mr Smith started to climb into his van.

He said his hands were by the trigger but he did not remember pulling it and did not intend to fire.

Hickson told the court that he walked round the van and saw Mr Smith, 29, of Highfield Road, Pudsey, lying on the floor.

He went on: "I started to think about what happened to me in the past, threats he had made to my family, my brother...and reloaded the gun and I shot him again."

"I don't specifically remember reloading. I just remember standing over him. I thought 'you've put me though hell, threatened my family'. I just shot him, pulled the trigger".

The murder trial has heard that the shooting happened in Tong Lane, Tong, in February last year at a meeting between the two men over a drugs debt.

Mr Smith, a second-hand car salesman, had demanded £17,000 but Hickson only had half of it after a deal to sell cannabis for £9,500 fell through. Hickson told how he arranged for someone to supply him with a gun to take to the meeting for his own protection. Hickson, of Royds Avenue, Birkenshaw, said he had no intention of firing the gun to injure Mr Smith - at worst he thought he might have to discharge it into the air.

He said Mr Smith swung open the driver's door, looked at the gun and at Hickson and "came at me."

Hickson said: "I put my hands on the trigger. I had them ready to fire it. The gun was pushed backwards and I went with it. The butt of the gun touched the passenger door and the gun went off."

Hickson said he wasn't thinking straight when he shot Mr Smith again outside the van. He then drove off and threw the gun, cartridges, Smith's mobile phone and car keys into a pond. He took his clothes off and threw them down a banking before driving to his mother's house.

The trial continues.