A dad handed his 14-year-son a shotgun after he murdered a man on the doorstep of their family home and told him: "Tell them you done it because you can’t get done for it," a court heard.

The jury was told 50-year-old Matthew Moseley “sought to manipulate” his son Thomas into saying he pulled the trigger.

Lee Holt, 32, went to the house in Oswaldtwistle as part of an ongoing dispute between another boy, also aged 14, and Thomas.

The prosecution claims Matthew Moseley senior opened his front door and fired a Beretta semi-automatic shotgun at Mr Holt, who died from a single wound to the chest.

The defendant then immediately handed the weapon to his son who was inside the house, the court was told.

Robert O’Sullivan QC said: “It is the prosecution case that Matthew Moseley, from the outset, has sought to manipulate his son into accepting responsibility for the shooting and the death of Lee Holt.

“Thomas initially did just that, out of what you may think was loyalty and love for his father.

“Indeed he was arrested and interviewed by police on suspicion of the murder of Lee Holt, before the truth came out.”

Mr Holt, his partner Kate Phelan, a 14-year-old boy and a friend of the teenager went in a taxi to the address in Barnard Close.

Thomas had been in dispute with the other 14-year-old since May 2016 and a row flared up on social media between the pair with a suggestion they meet for a fight, the jury was told.

The messages were shown to Kate and Lee, who had both been drinking at a funeral.

Both were seen shouting outside the property and banging the outside windows when they arrived.

Thomas Moseley said he saw his father bending down on one knee, taking a shotgun from a gun cabinet next to the porch and loading it with three cartridges.

He asked his father what he was doing and he was told by his father to call the police, the court heard.

The prosecution said Thomas Moseley dialled 999 from a cordless phone and a sound was heard about 10 seconds into the call, which the prosecution suggested was the firing of the gun.

He said: “It is inherently unlikely, is it not, that Thomas can put the receiver down, hand it to someone, pick up the gun and fire it on the doorstep in all that time.”

Preston Crown Court

After the shooting Moseley made a number of phone calls in which he said his son was responsible, the jury was told.

Mr O’Sullivan added: “The prosecution suggest the defendant was anxious to disseminate a false account of the events by telling lots and lots of people that his son had shot someone, anticipating that the truth would come out and his son would drop the pretence that he had fired the gun.”

The defendant - a shooting enthusiast - called his brother James from his doorstep and the following day the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) when he inquired whether police could take his guns away.

When Matthew Moseley was arrested on suspicion of murder he said he did not know who had fired the shotgun.

Father and son were taken to local magistrates in the back of a police van as detectives applied for further time to question them, the court heard.

A covert bug was placed in the vehicle and the prosecutor said: “He can be heard telling Thomas that he is a minor and cannot go to jail and if Matthew Moseley did not get out they would come for his mother and younger siblings.

“He is there putting emotional pressure on his son to take the blame. He went on to say to Thomas ‘self-defence for you, you didn’t know what you were doing. Me, different ball game’.”

Matthew Moseley was subsequently charged with murder and was remanded in custody at HMP Preston, the jury heard.

In prison the defendant, who denies murder, made a number of phone calls which were recorded, said the prosecutor.

In one he told his wife Julia: “I weren’t even f***ing aiming. I just picked it up and bang.”

The trial is estimated to last up to three weeks.

Proceeding