THE man alleged to have fired the gun which showered a man with more than 100 pieces of pellet has admitted he previously paid his co-accused to do his dirty work.

But Donovan Wallace, 26, maintains he did not conspire with Kevin King, 30, and Jack Wilding, 20, to murder Mark Walsh, 35, in an alley behind Mr Walsh’s home in Accrington.

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Giving his evidence from the witness box at Preston Crown Court, Wallace, of Lodge Lane, Lytham, admitted lying to police to distance himself from the shooting.

In an interview shortly after the attack — in which 35-year-old Mr Walsh suffered hearing damage and more than 80 wounds to his head, neck and body — Wallace told officers he had been asleep in his wagon near Walton Summit in Preston on the night of January 12, the court heard.

He later claimed he had agreed to give Wilding, of no fixed address, a lift so he could go and break another man’s windows, prosecutors said.

Michael Shorrock QC, prosecuting, asked Wallace: “When you did not like someone you got Jack to do your dirty work, and that dirty work was putting in windows. For that he got £20 here and £20 there.”

“Yes,” replied Wallace.

Mr Shorrock said: “You were scared to do it yourself and you employed someone six-and-a-half years younger to do it?”

Wallace accepted he did.

But when asked what the arrangement was on January 12, Wallace told the court Wilding had contacted him and asked him to help.

Mr Shorrock said: “The man you describe as a tramp in your police interview, six-and-a-half years younger than you, who you use to do your dirty work, is now asking you to do his dirty work? And you are going to assist him in this dirty work?”

“Yes,” replied Wallace.

Wallace and Wilding deny attempted murder and all three defendants deny conspiracy to murder. But Wallace told the court: “I do not have a problem with Mark Walsh.”

He insisted he had told the police he was in his wagon as he had not wanted King, of Lodge Lane, Lytham, to learn he had been into Accrington to help Wilding and was scared of being arrested and remanded for assisting Wilding. When arrested on January 14 at Cobham services on the M25, Wallace told officers: “It’s Kev you’re after but he was in the South. His phone will tell you that.”

Wallace now claims he does not remember making the comments recorded in the arresting officer’s notebook, the court heard.

Proceeding.