A MAN charged with the shotgun murder of a love rival asked a neighbour for a lift before police arrived, a court was told yesterday.

Keith McQuade, 47, left a friend's house carrying a holdall in which he is alleged to have had the sawn-off shotgun used to kill Lee King, 32, on a Middlesbrough housing estate, said a prosecution witness.

John Johnson, a mechanic known as Car Jack, said that early on January 28 last year he was working in his garage when neighbour Peter Heeran, 27, walked in, saying: "Keith needs a lift, urgent."

He drove Mr McQuade to a mutual friend's home, in Berwick Hills.

Mr Johnson told Teesside Crown Court that, ten minutes later, on his return home to Park End, Middlesbrough, he heard the sirens of emergency vehicles. He added that Mr Heeran returned to his garage later and told him that Lee King had been shot.

Mr Johnson said: "Heeran said to me, 'It served him right, he was trying to get me shot.' I told him that I did not want to know anything about it."

Earlier, James Spencer, QC, prosecuting, alleged that Mr King was shot by Mr McQuade because he had insulted Mr McQuade's former lover. It was said he had boasted about a one-night stand with her and called her a slut.

Mr McQuade, of Kenilworth Avenue, Park End, denies murdering Mr King, of Stonor Walk, Park End, in Penistone Road, Park End.

The trial continues.