Kevin Carroll murder: Phone taken from 'Gerbil' after shooting

Kevin Carroll was killed in an Asda car park in Robroyston

A friend of Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll has told a murder trial that he took a phone from the gangland figure's pocket after he had been shot dead in Glasgow.

Francis Green, 32, arrived at the Asda carpark in Robroyston shortly after Mr Carroll was killed on 13 January 2010.

He said he took the phone as it was ringing to check if it was his sister, who was Mr Carroll's girlfriend.

Mr Green was giving evidence at the trial of William Paterson, 35, who denies murdering Mr Carroll, 29.

Mr Green, a car valeter from Milton, told the High Court in Glasgow he had been friends with Mr Carroll for 15 years.

'In charge'

He said his sister was the victim's boyfriend and that he had spoken to him earlier on the day he was killed.

In evidence, he said a man named Stephen McLaggan phoned him after the shooting.

Mr Green told the jury: "He (McLaggan) said Gerbil had been shot."

Asked why Mr McLaggan would phone him, the witness said: "He was my sister's boyfriend."

Mr Green was asked if he was "in charge" of Mr McLaggan and John Bonner, who had been in the car with Mr Carroll seconds before the shooting, but fled. Mr Green said that he was not.

He was asked if he took a phone from Mr Carroll after seeing that he was dead and said "yes".

The jury was told Mr Green answered the phone and then kept hold of it.

He denied the suggestion that it was to stop it falling into the hands of the police.

Mr Green told the court that he took his own sim cards out of his phones and snapped them up and "chewed them in to wee bits".

'Western-style gun'

Asked why he did that, he said: "I had something in my phone I didn't want anybody to get. Unrelated to the matter."

Earlier, the trial heard from Emma Busby, 35, who was in the carpark at the time of the shooting.

She described seeing one man with a "Clint Eastwood western-style gun" and hearing eight to 10 shots being fired.

She told the jury she was "hysterical" when she went back inside the supermarket, adding: "I went in to the chemist and sat down and was sick."

Asda manager Steven McKenna, 49, told the jury he saw the incident unfold from an upstairs office.

He described the Audi, where Mr Carroll was, being blocked in by another car and two men, from the passenger and driver side, getting out with guns.

The court heard he watched "shocked" and "motionless" but then activated a nearby panic alarm and phoned the emergency services as he made his way down to the car park.

Mr Paterson denies the charges and is incriminating six other people.

He has lodged a special defence of alibi claiming he was at an address in Cumbernauld on the day of the shooting.

The trial before judge Lord Armstrong continues.