A teenager accused of murdering a 62-year-old man when he fatally shot in the chest with a homemade ‘slam-gun’ was caught on CCTV fleeing the scene, a court heard.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, maintains the gun went off by accident and he never intended to hurt or kill Alan Garbutt.

Jurors were told that the teenager had coerced Mr Garbutt into letting him move into his Guisborough flat where the pair took and sold drugs.

Peter Glenser KC, prosecuting, said several people were seen coming and going from Mr Garbutt’s flat in Helmsley House in the early hours of the morning before the teenager ran from the flat at around 1.30am on August 8 last year.

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The Northern Echo: Alan GarbuttAlan Garbutt

He said: “It is the Crown’s case and not in dispute that the teenager had just shot dead Mr Garbutt. He accepts firing the shot that killed him.

“It is also not in dispute that the weapon that caused AG’s death was what is known colloquially as a ‘slam gun’.”

The Northern Echo: Police at the scene of the alleged murderPolice at the scene of the alleged murder

The court heard how his daughter visited Mr Garbutt’s flat when the teenager told her – ‘I tried to shoot him three times and he has got some balls for an old man’ following a row about a £1,000 debt.

Mr Glenser said there was no dispute about whether the teenager fired the fatal shot but jurors will hear that the defendant will maintain it was just an accident.

In police interview, the teenager told detectives that he had a disagreement with Mr Garbutt and he admitted that he pulled the gun out from under the sofa where the victim was sitting.

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He said that it went off in his hands without him using force to discharge the cartridge. He denied loading the gun.

Fire crews and ambulance crews also attended the block of flats at Helmsley House in Guisborough, from around 2.20am on August 8, where the body of Mr Garbutt was discovered with a single gunshot wound to the chest.

A 43-year-old man and a 28-year-old man previously arrested on suspicion of murder were released with no further action taken.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.