A court heard today how an alleged gang of robbers panicked when they saw a news bulletin about two police officers being shot in Bradford.

Witness Francois Baron told the Sharon Beshenivsky murder trial that three of the men shaved their heads and burned the clothes they had been wearing after watching the TV coverage of the shooting.

Mr Baron told the trial at Newcastle Crown Court how the day before PC Beshenivsky was shot dead and PC Teresa Milburn was wounded following a robbery at the Universal Express travel agents in Morley Street, he had been shown two guns and a bag of golden bullets at a house in Harehills Lane, Leeds.

The witness said that a man he knew as tattoo man', alleged to be Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, took the guns, a black pistol with a silver silencer and a black machine gun, from a bag, put them on a bed and cleaned them with a piece of cloth.

Mr Baron said that when he woke the following morning all seven men - alleged to be the five accused and Mustaf Jamma and Piran Ditta Khan - were at the house.

He said he heard tattoo man ask Khan, who he knew as uncle, whether the mission was going to be successful. Uncle replied: "Minimum 50 grand but the maximum target will be 100 grand."

Mr Baron said the men said: "Let's go for it," and they were very happy.

He told how they left the house in three cars between 2pm and 2.30pm and then saw them return in a hurry between 5pm and 6pm.

Mr Baron said: "Everyone was running upstairs. I looked out of my room. I saw all of them in a room. I saw the guns lying on the bed. They were upset and shouting to each other."

He said he was told to let them know when the news came on TV. When they saw the reports that one policewoman had been injured and the other was dead they started to panic, he said.

He said the two Somalians, said to be the Jamma brothers, and 'tattoo man' shaved their heads with an electric razor and the clothes they were wearing were burned outside and put in a skip.

He said they then started to leave the house and drive away in separate cars.

Mr Baron admitted to the court he had been interviewed as a suspect and had been paid £70-a-week by police after making a statement to them in February this year.

Cross-examined by Mukhtar Hussain QC for Aslam, Mr Baron said he was interviewed 11 times over one-and-a-half days before making the statement on February 4.

e said he had previously been paid £50-a-day as a self-employed asylum care assistant for Caradon Estates, which rented houses to immigrants, including the one in Harehills Lane, Leeds.

Mr Baron said he was no longer employed and had not worked since before his arrest in February.

Questioned by Mr Hussain he said he was being paid £70-a-week by police for food.

Mr Baron told the court he had come to the UK from the Seychelles, where he was born, in April 2001 and was allowed to stay for six months by the immigration authorities, but he had overstayed. He had also converted his religion from a Christian to a Muslim.

He told the court he had always wanted to stay in the country but questioned by Mr Hussain he admitted when he arrived he only wanted to stay for two weeks. But he changed his mind after about four months, he said.

He confessed he had worked, even though his passport was stamped with the instruction that he was not allowed to.

Earlier Mr Baron was shown video footage of a film shot by police when he showed them round the houses at Harehills Lane and Roundhay Place.

He was shown a vacuum cleaner which he said the men had used to pick up hair after they had shaved their heads.

He confirmed a yard at the back of the house in Harehills Lane where he said the clothes had been burned.

Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, of no fixed address, has pleaded guilty to the murder of PC Beshenivsky but denies attempting to murder PC Milburn.

Four other men plead not guilty to murdering PC Beshenivsky. They are Yusuf Abdillh Jamma, 20, of Small Heath, Birmingham; Raza ul-Haq Aslam, 25, of Kentish Town London; and brothers Faisal Razzaq, 25, and Hassan Razzaq, 26, both of Forest Gate London.

Aslam and the Razzaqs also deny robbery.

Shah has pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon and two charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The other four defendants plead not guilty to possessing a nine millimetre pistol with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited weapon. Jamma, Aslam, and the Razzaqs also deny possessing a Mach 10 sub-machine gun within intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibiting a weapon.

The trial continues.

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