A JURY has been sent out to consider its verdict in the case of an East Lancashire housing manager who was kidnapped and allegedly murdered.

Prosecutors allege Paul Devalda murdered Paul Brady, 44, after abducting him from Lynn’s Court in Weir, near Bacup.

No clear motive has been given for the killing of the father-of-four, whose body has never been found.

But his girlfriend, Emma Dobson, told police he had been involved in a £350,000 cocaine deal shortly before his disappearance.

Devalda, 34, of Padiham Road, Burnley, claims he has been framed by police for the murder.

He says he purchased a balaclava and gloves the day before Brady’s abduction because he was paranoid that police were watching him.

Liverpool Crown Court has heard that Mr Brady was lured to Lynn’s Court by a firework attack on one of the homes there.

He was set upon by a masked gang of up to 15 people armed with metal bars and baseball bats and dragged into a waiting people-carrier.

Devalda denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap. His girlfriend Stacia Crossley, 28, also of Padiham Road, and business associate Keith Bowling, 38, from High Lane, Stockport, deny assisting him after the murder.