A couple who had been smoking heroin saw a body lying in a road, but left it there, fearing it was a trap.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Waseem Raja and Nicola Lewis fell asleep after taking the drugs 200 yards from where Keighley car dealer Mark Hickman's body was found.

Yesterday former addict Mr Raja, of Bradford, denied that he was a drug pusher and was carrying out a deal in Bridge Lane, Shelf.

But prosecution witness Mr Raja admitted he was scared that the body was a trap, and dealers from the Buttershaw estate were lying in wait.

The body of Mark Hickman, 32, was found in Bridge Lane at about 7.30pm on Friday, February 13, 1998. The Keighley car dealer died from multiple fractures, his throat was cut and he had brain damage.

David Deakin senior, 52, and Mark Deakin, 30, both of First Avenue, Windy Bank, Liversedge, and David Deakin junior, 26, of Cliffe Street, Staincliffe, Batley, all deny murdering Mr Hickman, of Whin Knoll Avenue, Keighley.

The jury was told that Mr Raja, along with his friend Miss Lewis, had driven to Bridge Lane to smoke two wraps of heroin, then fell asleep in the back of Mr Raja's car for two hours. He said: "We decided to set off and saw something in the road. It was a person, a body."

Mr Raja told the court that he sounded the car's horn. He said: "He did not move. I thought it was a set-up. I drove to the side and saw what I thought was a red bandana, but afterwards found it was blood." Mr Raja said he thought it was a trick and was frightened he would be attacked.

Defence barrister David Robson QC, for Mark Deakin, said that police information supplied to him suggested that Mr Raja was dealing in heroin and that he was supplying drugs in the Clayton area. Mr Raja denied the allegations.

Miss Lewis told the court that she turned to prostitution to feed the couple's £280 a week heroin addiction.

The case continues.

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