A MURDER victim, who was shot in the head before his body was left in a car boot in a quiet lane, had close links with notorious gangsters, a jury was told.

Stacey Lloyd, of Ripon Close, Whitefield, used to own a gun and was a regular visitor to a casino where he splashed out cash he carried around in a supermarket bag.

At the time Lloyd was unemployed and on sickness benefits but in the year before his brutal murder in Radcliffehe went to the casino 73 times and lost 'thousands of pounds' on the gaming tables, said barrister Jonathan Goldberg QC at Manchester Crown Court.

He alleged Lloyd had 'a reputation and street cred' and also had many enemies. After his death, when he was blasted to death at close range, an automatic gun was found hidden at his home.

Mr Goldberg made the allegations as he questioned Lloyd's girlfriend, Kimberley Kirkham, at the trial of two men who deny the murder.

But Miss Kirkham denied that Lloyd, the father of her two young children, was 'a professional drug dealer who acted as driver and bodyguard for a gangland armourer.'

She told the juryat Manchester Crown Court: "I never saw Stacey with a gun. If I had, I would have never had him anywhere near us. I never saw him with drugs and I knew nothing about him selling drugs".

Miss Kirkham was giving evidence at the trial in which Graham Redford, who is represented by Mr Goldberg, and Clive Heaton, both deny murdering Lloyd one day last January.

The Crown allege Redford, aged 42, of Whittle Street, Walkden, fired the shot which killed Lloyd and that Heaton, aged 46, of Belcroft Grove, Little Hulton, helped in the killing before the victim's body was dumped in the boot of his own car which was then driven off and set on fire and dumped in a quiet lane.

The prosecution claim Lloyd was killed when he went to the industrial unit to see Redford, a former private detective, and collect £6,000 he owed to another man over a business deal.

Miss Kirkham admitted Lloyd and Redford were "on good terms" and, just hours before the killing, Redford had gone to their home to "look around" for them after it had been burgled.

Proceeding