A former TV soap star claims he was an innocent pawn who acted out a bit-part in a gangland killing... without even knowing it.
Brookside actor Brian Regan, 54, admits he descended into a squalid existence of drug addiction and peddling cocaine after leaving the C4 soap.
Former electrician Regan played the part of Terry Sullivan in Brookside for 14 years before leaving in 1997.
Police says he unknowingly acted as the driver of a "getaway car" after the assassination of Bahman Faraji at a Liverpool pub in February this year.
But Regan told a jury that he was duped into playing the role and knew nothing about the killing until he read headlines about it the next in a local newspaper.
Nightclub doorman Faraji, 44, was shot in the head at point blank range outside the Belgrave Pub in Aigburth on 24th February.
Regan told Liverpool Crown Court how he had started delivering cocaine for an old friend Lee Dodson as a way of feeding his own spiralling drug habit.
On the night of the killing Regan delivered a #30 consignment of cocaine to a regular customer Eddie Heffey - who denies firing the fatal bullet.
After supplying Heffey with the drug, Regan agreed to transport Heffey to collect money he said he was owed and stopped the car near the Belgrave pub.
Regan said: "When I dealt Eddie the cocaine, he asked me to give him a lift. I never refused to take Eddie anywhere. It was not an unusual request.
"When we got there, he jumped-out only to come back about three or four minutes later.
"He said he couldn’t get the money from there, and we had to go somewhere else.
"On the drive to Belgrave Road, he was asking me about my so-called acting career, and we even talked about the Liverpool match that night.
"I remember him taking a few calls, but I did not pay attention to what was said, I was concentrating on driving.
"When we got to the next place, he jumped out again and disappeared for five minutes. I did not hear anything, and I was not expecting to hear anything.
"When he returned he was just normal, No heavy breathing, he wasn’t covered in blood and did not have a gun. He then asked me to drop him off where I had picked him up.
"Then I drove away normally. It was dark, and the streets were tight, so I definitely was not speeding."
Regan told how, when he saw a newspaper headline the next day he was filled with a sense of foreboding.
He said: "I went to the shops to buy cigarettes and I saw the front of the paper.
"There was a big photograph and the story said it happened in Aigburth, and that a man was seen getting into a car and driving away.
"I felt a shiver run down my spine. Something just did not feel right. I had been in that area the night before driving a car, and I just felt a bit uneasy.
"I can't explain what that was."
He said that on the night of the shooting he did not notice anything unusual about Heffey's demeanour.
Later the next day, Regan was on his way to a drug counselling session with his girlfriend when he was stopped by police and taken into custody.
Regan, denies a charge of murdering Bahman Faraji and another count of perverting the court of justice.
He faces trial with four co-accused.
Edward Heffey, 40, Lee George Dodson, 42, and Simon Smart, 33, each deny a charge of murder. Christine Line, 49, denies perverting the course of justice.
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