A married couple told a murder trial how three half-naked women jumped into their car as they waited at a junction.

The women said they had jumped from a third-floor window to escape gunmen breaking into their home in Harrow, north west London.

It is claimed one of the three is the key witness in the case against accused killer and Bradford City footballer Gavin Grant, 26.

She later told police that the murder of 21-year-old Leon Labastide was carried out the next day in revenge for the raid.

Grant and his friend Gareth Downie, 25, are accused of gunning down Mr Labastide outside his mother’s home in Harlesden, north west London, on May 23, 2004.

The Old Bailey heard witnesses Neel Shah and his wife Palavi were only interviewed in April this year.

Giving evidence, they told the court how they were driving down Gayton Road towards Kenton Road on the night of May 22, 2004.

Mr Shah said: “As we stopped at the junction two ladies came running out and jumped into the back of the car from the driver’s side.

“I didn’t see them coming across the road. The door opened and they jumped into the back. They were frantic.

“When they got into the car there was a mention of someone breaking in, there was a mention of guns and that somebody had jumped from a third-floor window.”

The women told the couple one of their friends was hiding in a bush outside the house.

Mr Shah said he decided to drive them to nearby Northwick Park Hospital so he could get them help and maybe find a police officer. As he did so he passed the address and the third woman came running over.

Mr Shah said: “They were primarily in underwear, they were not aptly dressed.”

His wife told the court the girls were shouting: ‘Help, help!’ She also spoke of her panic and fear: “I told my husband what are we going to do now?”

The raid was allegedly carried out on the house of Grant’s best friend Romain Whyte while he was in hospital after a motorcycle accident.

Whyte’s sister and his partner Sabrina Edwards both suffered leg injuries leaping from the window.

It is claimed the third person was the key witness, then aged only 16.

Jurors have heard that Grant and his friends Damien Williams, 31, and Gareth Downie became convinced Leon Labastide, known as Playboy, was involved in the raid.

Mr Labastide was gunned down at 10.25pm the next day outside his mother’s front door in Mordaunt Road, Harlesden. He was shot twice in the back and died half an hour later in hospital.

Downie, of Markby Road, Birmingham, and Grant, of Kenton, north west London, deny the murder of Mr Labastide.

Damien Williams, then living in Milton Avenue, Harlesden, north west London, and now living in south London, denies conspiracy to murder Mr Labastide.

Grant signed for Bradford City in February this year on a non-contract basis. He was released by Millwall at the end of the 2007-08 season, and has also played for Grays Athletic, Gillingham, Stevenage Borough and Wycombe Wanderers.

The trial continues.