A JURY has heard an odd job man give a variety of different accounts when quizzed by detectives investigating his friend’s murder.

Malcolm Harland initially insisted he had not seen Terence McGlade for a day-and-a-half before the pensioner was killed and his home set alight.

In a second interview, the homeless 50-year-old confessed to the killing and demonstrated to police how he choked 77- year-old Mr McGlade.

He told officers the pair had a fight and he grabbed his friend in a moment of madness, and held him by the throat for five minutes.

The jury watched a video of the interview in which Mr Harland said he then checked for a pulse, realised he had killed his friend and panicked.

He said he poured brandy on a bed in the bungalow in Pennine Crescent, Redcar, in the early hours of July 9, set it alight and fled.

The differing accounts emerged when three interviews – lasting four hours – were played in full to the jury during the fourth day of the trial yesterday.

Christine Egerton, prosecuting, told the jury that Mr Harland “lied and lied again about his movements” in the first interview.

He initially said he last saw grandfather and retired joiner Mr McGlade on the Thursday before his death in the early hours of the Saturday.

Describing how he heard of the blaze, he claimed the first he knew about it was when he read about it in his local newspaper on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Harland, formerly of Queen Street, Redcar, denies murder and the trial is expected to continue tomorrow with evidence from a pathologist.

The court has heard how a post-mortem examination was difficult because Mr McGlade was badly burnt in the fire which engulfed his home. But Miss Egerton told the jury that it had been established that he suffered two fractures to his neck – said to have been caused by the throttling.

The pathologist also noted two recent rib fractures and marks to the mouth of the pensioner, said Miss Egerton.

The case continues.