A witness in the Kriss Donald case denied any part in his murder

Imran Shahid - one of the accused - has lodged a special defence blaming Mohammed Maqsood and others.

Mr Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, are accused of racially aggravated murder.

Mr Maqsood told the High Court in Edinburgh he was at a funeral on the day Kriss was abducted.

He said he had been at the ceremony for a friend's grandfather at a Mosque in Leith, Edinburgh, and later at a car hire firm nearby in the early afternoon of 15 March, 2004.

Advocate depute Mark Stewart QC, prosecuting, asked Mr Maqsood: "Did you kill Kriss Donald?"

"No, I never" he replied.

Silver car

He also denied he had been in the company of Daanish Zahid and Zahid Mohammed - two men linked to the abduction of Kriss.

Imran Shahid's QC, David Burns, claimed that on the afternoon when Kriss was snatched from Kenmure Street, Pollokshields, Glasgow, Mr Maqsood had been in a silver car.

Mr Burns also claimed that a car valet who worked at Good News Car Hire in Annandale Lane, Leith, had picked out Zahid Mohammed at an identity parade and said he had been in the car with Mr Maqsood.

"Impossible. I don't even know who Zahid is," retorted Mr Maqsood, claiming it must have been a case of mistaken identity.

Mr Burns challenged: "Maybe, apart from attending a funeral on that day you were in the Kenmure Street area of Pollokshields, Glasgow, at about half past two or three o'clock.

I saw that the tyre treads matched, or were very similar to the tyre marks at the locus Det Const Alan Hutchison

"It can't be, it is impossible," said Mr Maqsood, explaining that Muslim funerals were always held at the same time in the early afternoon.

The trial also heard how police began to suspect a link between a torched Mercedes found in a Glasgow Lane and the murder of Kriss Donald.

Det Sgt Edward Waye who was put in charge of the crime scene immediately after the discovery of the schoolboy's body said he noticed tyre tracks nearby.

When taken later to Granby Lane, Hillhead, he saw that a burnt-out silver Mercedes there had tyres of different makes front and back.

Colleague Det Const Alan Hutchison told the court: "I saw that the tyre treads matched, or were very similar to the tyre marks at the locus."

PC Graeme Rankin, who normally produces detailed drawings of road accident scenes, showed the trial sketch maps of the area where Kriss was found.

The court heard evidence from officers at the crime scene

The trial saw blood-stains among scorched logs, then blood and soot in the flattened grass leading to a small muddy hollow which had contained some water.

He said it was consistent with a victim moving from the area of the logs to the junction of a path and the Clyde Walkway where the body was found.

Earlier, the court heard how Mr Mushtaq claimed police had "got it in for him" during a phone call from Pakistan.

Nazia Ali, 22, said her cousin had phoned her from a village in Faisalabad about two weeks after the schoolboy's killing.

The three men are accused of abducting and killing Kriss, from Pollokshields, Glasgow, by striking him with a knife or knives and then setting him on fire on 15 March, 2004.