GLOVES and shoes taken from the home of Stuart Grainger linked him to a bank raid during which a shotgun was fired, a court was told.

Grainger, aged 25, of Thanet Close, Salford, is accused of being part of a gang which burst into the Barclays bank on Market Street, Westhoughton, five years ago.

Forensic experts told a Manchester Crown Court jury that a pair of trainers and four golf gloves linked Stuart Grainger to the £120,000 robbery.

The jury were also shown balaclavas found at the home of Grainger's mother and shells from a gun which were recovered from the getaway car used in the robbery.

A pair of size seven Nike Air training shoes found at the house Grainger shared with his girlfriend on Woodward Road, Prestwich, provided "moderately strong" evidence that his feet had been on the counter of the bank, said footwear expert Caroline Eames.

After examining a sign taken from the counter and the shoes which were recovered from the house when Grainger was arrested two months later, Ms Eames said: "My conclusion is moderately strong that those shoes made this mark."

She had also examined pieces of paper found in the bank's "strong room" which had the same prints on them and found they matched the shoes.

Philip Seaman, an expert in textile forensics found that fibres from two pairs of golf gloves found at Grainger's Prestwich address and his mother's home provided "very strong support" that they had been in the Mitsubishi Spacewagon the four-strong gang used to speed off from the bank in April, 2000.

DNA expert Susan Cherry said that there was a "one-in-a-billion" chance that blood found on the home-made balaclava found at the accused's mother's home was not Grainger's but said there was nothing to link it to the robbery.

The court has heard that the gang, armed with shotguns, burst into the Barclays bank on Market Street, Westhoughton, on April 13, 2000.

Grainger denies one charge of robbery and a second charge of possessing a firearm with intent to commit robbery.

(Proceeding)