Ex-heroin user says she was forced to be witness

A FORMER heroin addict has told a murder conspiracy trial that she was told she would go to prison if she did not appear as a witness.

Claire Lizanec agreed she wrote a letter saying that she had no choice but to be a witness.

Ms Lizanec, 28, told the High Court in Edinburgh: "The police said I would get charged, I was told I'd get at least two years."

She said she had also written that a protective custody officer "tried it on". She said: "Basically it means he came round and he was drunk and I told him to leave. Then he was taken off. I was allocated someone else."

She was giving evidence at the trial of Martin Black, 33, and Francis Doris, 40, who deny conspiring to murder Kevin Martin between June 1 and July 6 in 2008 in Edinburgh.

Black's defence counsel, Neil Murray QC, asked her about a note in which she had written about receiving "a nice bit of cash" to go on a holiday. She said she posed for "girlie pictures" at a safe house for about 1,000.

The trial continues.