A MAN accused of murdering a missing businesswoman claimed she was still alive when he last saw her, a court has heard.

David Parker, 37, has denied any involvement in the killing of Lynda Spence, 27, who disappeared in April 2011, but said she was held and assaulted at his flat.

He and three others, Colin Coats, 42, Philip Wade, 42, and Paul Smith, 47, are accused of abducting the woman from a street in Glasgow before taking her to a flat in West Kilbride, Ayrshire, where, it is alleged, they tortured and murdered her.

At the High Court in Glasgow, the jury heard a police interview with Parker during which he told officers he was offered £1500 for the use of his flat in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, where someone was to be "questioned".

He said he agreed to the arrangement after being approached by Smith. Parker, who was a heroin user, told police the situation "snowballed" after Coats and someone he called Philip brought Ms Spence to the property, where they are said to have tied her to a chair and burned her with an iron and cigarettes and later cut off her thumb.

He said he was kept downstairs in the living room, but saw some of her injuries when he went up to offer her cigarettes and feed her lentil soup and sugary tea.

She was bound to a chair with tape around her torso and arms and over her mouth, he said.

During the interview on October 31, 2011, at Saltcoats police station, he told detectives Ms Spence was alive when he last saw her.

When asked by one of the interviewing officers if he remembered telling his friend, Sean Alexander, that Ms Spence was moved from the upstairs storage room into the bathroom, Parker said: "No, I didn't tell Sean about that. I can't understand why Sean would say that."

The officer replied: "Neither can I, because everything he has said has been proved to be correct – but not this?

"He said you were emotional about it, that it had cut you to pieces. He said you were a broken man when he asked you specifically if she was alive when you left."

Parker said: "She was alive when I left."

Earlier, the court heard Smith's police interview, in which he told officers there was a "very good chance" that Coats and Wade murdered Ms Spence.

He also told officers the missing woman was alive but injured when he last saw her.

Under cross-examination by Gary Allan QC, Detective Constable Pamela McCowie told the court she took two witness statements from Smith in the month before the interview, which the lawyer pointed out were "diametrically different" stories to the one heard by the jury.

Mr Allan, representing Wade, said: "So, Mr Smith was telling lies on at least one of these occasions?"

The detective agreed that they were different accounts.

Parker, Smith, who is from Largs, Ayrshire, Wade, from Glengarnock, Ayrshire, and Coats, from Glasgow, are alleged to have held Ms Spence hostage for up to a fortnight.

The accused deny all the charges. The trial continues.