A professional footballer accused of shooting a man dead in the street six years ago told an Old Bailey jury he was busy doing the ‘nappy run’.

Gavin Grant, now 26, who played for Bradford City last season, is accused of murdering 21-year-old Leon Labastide in a revenge attack.

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

The prosecution claim the victim was killed for showing ‘disrespect’ to Grant’s best friend on the notorious Stonebridge Estate.

But giving evidence, Grant claimed that Leon Labastide was a childhood friend who went to the same school.

He also accused the key prosecution witness of lying about a supposed confession to the murder.

It is claimed the killing began with a motorcycle accident, which happened yards from Leon Labastide’s home in Mordaunt Road, Harlesden, and left Grant’s friend Romain Whyte in hospital on May 22, 2004.

That night Mr Whyte’s home was raided by three armed men and his girlfriend and sister and a 16 year-old girl were forced to jump from a window to escape.

Grant told jurors that he visited his friend the next day and added: ‘He was concerned about his girlfriend and his sister.’ It is claimed Grant’s cousin Damien Williams, 31, became convinced Mr Labastide was behind the raid and called for retaliation.

The key witness has told how Grant and Gareth Downie, 25, left Williams’s home in Milton Avenue, Harlesden, and returned an hour later ‘sweaty and out of breath’.

She said they boasted about shooting Mr Labastide six times. But Grant told jurors that the witness – who was then aged 16 – had left Williams’s home to go back to Bristol before the shooting occurred.

Grant said he had made two trips from the house that night. He claimed the first trip was to collect Mr Whyte’s clothes and then see a friend in the Harrow Wealdstone area.

When he returned at around 9.20pm, the 16-year-old had gone.

Grant said the second trip was to carry out ‘domestic chores’, including buying nappies.

‘So you did the nappy run?’ asked his barrister Nigel Rumfitt QC. Grant replied: ‘Yes.’ He said he returned to Williams’s home and noticed police activity at around 10.25pm.

Grant said they all went outside and saw a large crowd of people, including Gareth Downie.

Grant told the court that his football career only started after Leon Labastide’s murder.

He had signed schoolboy forms for Watford FC at age 14, but was dropped at 16 and ended up working at Tesco.

In 2005, Grant signed for League One side Gillingham for six months before moving to Millwall in 2006.

He then signed for Wycombe Wanderers in 2008 and last played for Bradford before being released at the end of last season.

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, northwest London, and now living in south London, denies conspiracy to murder Mr Labastide.

The trial continues.