Gang 'got high' before Pc killing

Mustaf Jama denies murdering Pc Beshenivsky

An armed gang were drinking and smoking cannabis just hours before a robbery that ended with Pc Sharon Beshenivsky being shot dead, a court has heard.

Mustaf Jama, 29, denies murdering the officer who was shot outside a family-run travel agents in Bradford in November 2005. He has admitted robbery.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that he drove from London to Leeds with his brother where he joined the gang.

He told the jury: "I believe they were a bit wasted."

The court has been told that Mr Jama's brother, Yusuf, then 20, and gang boss Muzzaker Shah, then 25, have been convicted of murder.

I went completely mad... I was saying 'you shot them, you shot them' and I was swearing Mustaf Jama

Mother-of-three Pc Beshenivsky had been a serving constable for nine months when she died.

Her colleague, Pc Teresa Milburn, was also shot in the street as the robbers tried to escape the Universal Travel Agents, in Morley Street, with the money they had taken.

Mr Jama told the court when he got to the gang's hideout in Leeds in the early hours of the day of the robbery some were smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol.

'Fake' wepons

He said: "There was no serious conversation, everyone was joking about, they were all too high to have a normal conversation."

Mr Jama said he smoked with them but did not drink and then went to bed.

Sharon Beshenivsky had been a Pc for nine months

When he got up six hours later, other gang members were "still getting high".

He claimed that before the raid nothing was mentioned about weapons being used.

When he first saw the pistol and machine gun, he thought they were fake, the court heard.

Asked what he would have done if he had known that the guns were real, he said: "I would not have gone with them."

He said the raid netted the gang as little as £3,000.

As the raiders fled, the officers were shot in the street outside the travel agents.

Mr Jama said he did not realise they were police officers.

"I went completely mad," he said.

"I was shouting at Shah and my brother.

"I was saying 'you shot them, you shot them' and I was swearing."

The trial continues.