FIRE officers who had been called to the scene of a burning car on a lovers' lane discovered the dead body of a Whitefield man dumped in the boot, a murder trial was told.

They were alerted after a motorist spotted the blazing vehicle in Griffe Lane, Unsworth, and found the body of 31-year-old Stacey Lloyd with a gunshot wound to the head.

Details of the gruesome find were revealed before a jury at Manchester Crown Court when statements from fire officers were read to the jury trying two men accused of murdering Mr Lloyd, of Ripon Close, in January last year.

Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb said: "In my opinion he was shot from relatively close range - within a few centimetres or so".

Graham Redford (42), of Whittle Street, Walkden, is alleged to have planned and carried out the shooting with the help of 46-year-old Clive Heaton, of Belcroft Grove, Little Hulton. They both deny murder.

The prosecution allege the victim, who had an extensive criminal record and was said to associate with known criminals, was blasted to death at point blank range after going to an industrial unit in Radcliffe to collect £6,000 from Redford, which was owed to another man following a business deal.

At the time Lloyd was unemployed and on sickness benefits but in the year before his brutal murder he went to the casino 73 times and lost "thousands of pounds" on the gaming tables, said barrister Jonathan Goldberg QC, defending Redford. He was a regular visitor to a casino where he splashed out cash he carried around in a supermarket bag.

Mr Goldberg alleged Lloyd had "a reputation and street cred" and also had many enemies. After his death, 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.

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 jury: "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 admitted Lloyd and Redford, a former private detective, 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.

Redford's wife, Sharon (39), also of Whittle Street, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice by allegedly trying to provide a false alibi for her husband during the murder inquiry.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.