A MAN accused of conspiring to murder the stepfather of Dillon Hull spent part of the afternoon at a Bolton gym on the day the boy was killed, a court heard.

Preston Crown Court was told that David Hargreaves, of Aldercroft Avenue, Breightmet, claimed in a police interview following his arrest that he spent part of the afternoon training at a small gym on the site of a Bolton car yard.

In a written statement to the police, Hargreaves claimed he had been dropped off at Bolton Car and Commercial, off Folds Road, Bolton, by one of his co-accused, Brian David Roper, on the afternoon of August 6 last year. Hargreaves told officers he had been busy training in a small gym there.

The court heard that in the statement Hargreaves wrote: "I was training on my own all that afternoon. The people I remember at the yard may have come in and seen me."

He also claimed that during the afternoon he and Roper had driven to a Bolton town centre shop where he bought a pair of green gloves to use for gardening. The gloves were later recovered from Hargreaves's home.

Following his arrest, Hargreaves admitted also trying to buy a balaclava when he bought the gloves at Smalls Army and Navy Store on Bradshawgate. But Hargreaves told detectives that the balaclava was not for him. Reading from a transcript of the first interview Hargreaves gave, Det Sgt Craig Trow told the court Hargreaves said: "I didn't need a balaclava. It was for a friend who went moto-crossing."

The court heard that Hargreaves later went back on initial claims that a visit to a Bolton garage to collect a crash helmet with Paul Seddon, the man accused of Dillon's murder, took place on August 4 instead of two days later.

In his second interview he admitted to police he was "confused" and said he had received a call from Paul Seddon on August 6 - the day that Dillon died - "mithering" him to go and get a helmet for him.

The jury was told that Hargreaves tried to get a helmet from two friends' addresses before he, Craig Hollinrake and Roper, who was driving, picked up Seddon.

The four men visited a Bolton lock-up garage owned by John Bretherton, from where Seddon is alleged to have borrowed the crash helmet.

Hargreaves told police that Seddon was later dropped off on the outskirts of the town, adding: "I have got him in the car as a friend, as a favour."

Hargreaves also denied making a call to the home of John Bates, Dillon's stepfather, on his mobile telephone, a call which records show was made at 4.30pm.

The court was told that in interviews he claimed he had left his phone lying around unattended for about 15 minutes as he trained in the gym and did not know who placed the call.

But Hargreaves admitted in one police interview he had contacted Seddon on his mobile at 4.47pm on the day Dillon was gunned down in Bankfield Street, Deane.

The jury listened as it was alleged the phone call had been about steroids which Seddon had and which Hargreaves wanted to pick up.

Referring to interview transcripts the court heard that Hargreaves told officers that Seddon "had hold of a lot of steroids for me."

Paul Seddon of Chorley New Road, Bolton, denies murdering Dillon and attempting to murder John Bates.

Hargreaves, 24, Hollinrake, 25, and Roper, 22, deny conspiring to murder John Bates and commit grievous bodily harm with intent on John Bates.

Proceeding

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