A JURY has heard how shoe marks were found in blood and mud in the hallway of flats on Deeside which became a murder scene.

On the third day of the trial at Mold Crown Court, the jury was told scenes of crimes officers examined the Bethel Place flats at Connah’s Quay.

The prosecution says the shoe marks were made when the blood was wet and some of the marks showed movement in the way in which they were produced.

Forensic evidence on the issue will be called next week but the prosecution says the distinctive pattern on the soles of Leslie Baines’ Nike trainers was compared to the shoe marks found in the mud and blood in the hallway of the block of flats.

Paul Lewis, QC, prosecuting, has told the jury the findings provide “moderately strong support” for the proposition that his trainers left the marks in the blood and mud at the murder scene.

The jury has heard that Baines denied being at the flats.

David John Woods, 20, of Douglas Place in Liverpool, said to be the leader of a drugs gang, and Leslie Peter Baines, 48, of King’s Road in Connah’s Quay, deny murdering Matthew Cassidy.

The teenager from Liverpool, alleged to have been a drug dealer on Deeside, was stabbed nine times in a dispute over the sale of hard drugs, it is alleged.

One of the stab wounds penetrated the 19-year-old’s heart and he died from massive internal bleeding.

The defendants blame each other for the killing shortly before 8pm on Monday, May 29 last year when Mr Cassidy, of Huyton in Liverpool, was stabbed to death in the stairwell of the block of flats at Bethel Place.

The jury has heard that Woods was heard to admit to the murder in covert recordings of conversations with family and friends during prison visits at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool.

He says it is nonsense and that he was just boasting to his girlfriend.

The trial, before Mr Justice Clive Lewis, is proceeding and is expected to last a further two weeks.