A MAN accused of murdering a businessman has told a court he broke into a sandwich shop on the night of the shooting.

Kevin Downton has denied being involved in an alleged raid on the home of Guy Hedger, 61, in the early hours of April 30.

However, the defendant, 40, said he did break into the Apple Snacks sandwich shop on the Ebblake Industrial Estate in Verwood at around 1.40am that day.

He described using a piece of wood to break a window and prise open bars to enter the shop office.

"I found some money, money bags, which I put in my bag. I found a safe and at that point I heard a car on the estate," he told jurors sitting at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday.

He said he left the shop with a safe and hid between two vans until he realised the car was being driven by co-defendant Jason Baccus.

The two men had met earlier in the evening and discussed the raid on the sandwich shop, but had not arranged to meet there, Downton said.

Downton then drove alone to some woods in a bid to break open the safe but left after about an hour when he had failed to get into it, he said.

He then returned to Upton and before beginning to take cocaine alone, he told jurors.

Prosecutors say Mr Hedger suffered fatal shotgun injuries after two masked men broke into his home in Castlewood, St Ives.

Downton, of Winterborne Stickland, near Blandford, and his co-defendants Baccus, 42, and Scott Keeping, 44, both of Verney Close, Bournemouth, all deny murder.

Downton previously told the court that he would often carry out commercial burglaries on industrial estates but would not burgle houses

He said: "It's different from a house.

"A house to me is people's personal things and I wouldn't like it if people came in and took my personal things."

When asked by his defence barrister Adam Feest QC, he denied that had been involved in the raid on Mr Hedger's home, possessing a sawn-off shotgun or shooting him.

Helen Keeping, 40, from Poole, denies two charges of assisting an offender.

The three male defendants also pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated burglary and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.

Baccus and Downton admit one charge of burglary of industrial premises but deny another offence of burglary.

The trial continues.