FRIENDS of the man accused of murdering Duncan Banks started to suspect him after reading about the death in the Dunfermline Press. 

Steven Thomson then admitted to his shocked pals that he had been in Duncan's Abbeyview home the day he is believed to have been killed.

A jury at the High Court in Livingston today was told they behaved “like meerkats” when he volunteered that he had been at the scene of the crime.

Thomson later told police that he visited Duncan at his Skye Road flat the day before the 39-year-old was found with horrendous head injuries.

Giving evidence, Glenn Gilmour – a friend of both men – told how he and Thomson had been sitting in a friend’s house in Dunfermline a couple of days after Duncan's death in September 2015.

He said: “Steven wasn’t in Kevin’s long and James Hamilton had brought a Dunfermline Press from the previous week. It had an article about Duncan in it.

 “This caused Hammy, me and Kevin to look at each other because the article in the Dunfermline Press said that the police believed the murder to have occurred between half nine and half 12.

“We were like meerkats looking up at each other because we thought he must have been thereabouts at a crucial time.

“I don’t know if Steven seen us or not but then he said something similar to: ‘It’s OK. Tranny J went in at the back of me'.”

Mr Gilmour said ‘Tranny J’ was what they called another mutual acquaintance, Jamie Curtis, after they saw pictures of him “dressed as a woman” on his Facebook page.

Thomson, 29, a prisoner at Perth, is on trial accused of murdering Duncan and possessing heroin. 

He is charged with repeatedly hitting him on the head with a blunt object or objects to his severe injury and robbing him of a money, heroin, a wallet and a key.

Thomson is also charged with possessing the Class ‘A’ drug at Duncan’s home and elsewhere in Dunfermline between 1 July and 13 October 2015.

He denies the charges and has lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming Jamie Curtis for the murder.

In other evidence, the jury was read a statement Thomson gave to detectives investigating the murder.

In it, he revealed that he stayed at Duncan’s when he fell out with his then partner.

Thomson had said: “I am trusted by him so I always go in and use the living room.”

He named a “select few” people who were also allowed access to Duncan’s house, stating that most customers who went there to buy heroin were dealt with at the door.

He told police: “When I was leaving I said to Dunk I’d be up later when I got more coin. He walked me to the front door and locked the door behind me.”

He said he returned to the house later that afternoon but got no answer at the door and went to play football.

He said: “I thought he was out with the dog or away to his mum's, which wasn’t unusual.”

The trial, before Lady Rae, continues.