A Bradford City footballer and his friend boasted how they had shot a rival six times in the street, an Old Bailey jury heard.

Gavin Grant, who has also played for Millwall and Gillingham, is accused of murdering 21 year-old Leon Labastide in a revenge hit.

Mr Labastide, known as ‘Playboy’, was gunned down outside his mother’s home in Harlesden, north west London, on May 23, 2004.

But it was only in 2008 that a key witness came forward to implicate Grant and his friends Gareth Downie, 25, and Damien Williams, 31, jurors were told.

She told police that Mr Labastide was thought to be behind an armed raid on their friend’s home the previous night.

Giving evidence under the pseudonym Susan Norwich, the witness claimed Williams “instigated” the other two to take action.

“They were talking about killing people, and shooting him because he had disrespected,” she added.

“I think they used to be friends. They had a conversation saying he used to eat at their mum’s house and saying ‘How could he do something like that?’ “They heard that it was him. They said they were going to get the things and deal with it, meaning a gun.’ Grant and Downie then left the house taking their motorbike helmets, the court heard.

They returned about an hour later “sweaty and anxious and out of breath,” the witness claimed.

“They said he was on the phone outside his house, or his mum’s house. They said he was outside a house,’ she said.

“I remember there being a discussion about him being shot six times. I don’t know if it was Gavin or Gareth.”

She claimed Williams then told them to get cleaned up and change their clothing.

Jurors have heard the witness was only 16 at the time of the murder.

Mr Labastide was shot at 10.25pm outside his mother’s front door in Mordaunt Road, Harlesden.

The two fatal bullet wounds passed from the back to the front and he 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.

The trial continues.