A drug dealer killed a vulnerable man by inflicting more than 100 injuries to his whole body using a claw hammer and pair of scissors, the jury in a murder trial has been told.

Mohammed Ali Khan has this week appeared at Preston Crown Court charged with the murder of "gentle giant" David Read at his home in Leamington Road, Blackburn, on June 7.

When the trial opened on Monday, the jury of six men and six women were told that 50-year-old David Read was a vulnerable man who was known to Khan, 34, of Preston New Road, and allegedly owed the defendant £700.

Evidence from Home Office Pathologist Dr Charles Wilson suggested that Mr Read died as a result of multiple injuries, with Dr Wilson saying there were more than 100 areas of injury found on his body, including 46 on his skull, caused by the round end of a hammer, the claw of a hammer, and the blades of a pair of scissors.

It was also heard that Mr Read had suffered injuries and fractures to his hands, consistent with self-defence wounds.

The court was told that on the night of June 6, Khan went to Mr Read’s flat and was later seen leaving and attending The Nile takeaway on Preston New Road, where evidence suggests he purchased a bottle of coke and two meals.

CCTV footage played to the court showed Khan returning to Leamington Road just after midnight and it was heard that he was not picked up on any CCTV leaving that address for several hours.

Jaime Hamilton KC told the jury that a number of phone calls and texts were made between 3.41am and 4.57am on June 7 from Mr Read’s mobile to four different numbers, none of whom belonged to people Mr Read knew.

He told the jury that all four numbers belonged to people known to Mr Khan and showed the court phone records which proved Khan had been in regular contact with those people in the weeks before Mr Read’s murder.

Phone records from Mr Read’s mobile showed he had never contacted those people before that night.

Evidence presented to the jury showed that at 9.03am on June 7, Khan was captured on CCTV leaving Mr Read’s flat on Leamington Road and heading towards Preston New Road, before heading back down an alleyway at the rear of Leamington Road.

At 9.25am Khan was seen walking towards Bromley Street before continuing onto Irving Place where he got changed out of his clothes and into some new ones.

He was also captured throwing some items over a fence in an alleyway before waving his hands around rapidly, gesturing as if in a rap video.

CCTV showed that Khan then emerged wearing different clothing and carrying some items.

At 9.49am he walked towards his own home on Preston New Road before CCTV picked him up at 9.55am walking at the rear of Leamington Road again. As he headed back down towards the front of his own house, CCTV showed he was no longer carrying any items.

The jury was then told how between 10.54am and 11.01am calls were made to Mr Read’s phone, but they were all forwarded to voicemail, indicating they had not been picked up.

At 11.19am, Khan left Preston New Road with another male and was seen walking back towards Leamington Road. However, both men were seen running from the area following the arrival of Mr Read’s mother, Mary Read.

It was Mary Read who found her son’s body in his flat at around 11.19am and a call was made to the police by David Read Snr at 11.38am reporting that his son had been found dead.

Paramedics and police arrived but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Images produced for the jury showed the inside of Mr Read’s flat, where blood could be seen on the walls behind an armchair.

A Coke bottle and takeaway boxes were also found in the flat, which Mr Hamilton KC said corresponded to the takeaway Khan had purchased the previous evening.

When police conducted a search of the vicinity around Leamington Road, pieces of Mr Read’s phone were found in an alleyway and a hammer was found in Irene Place.

Mr Read’s phone was examined and a number of messages between him and one of Khan’s phones were found.

When one of Khan’s phones was seized and examined, police found that Mr Read’s number had been deleted from the contact list.

Khan was arrested on June 9 at 5.47pm and custody images taken at the time, which were shown to the jury, indicated that Khan had a number of injuries on his face, hands and knee.

He was charged with David Read’s murder on June 12.

Mr Hamilton KC also said that a number of items of clothing were found close to Adelaide Terrace, including black Armani shorts and a t-shirt, which matched what Khan had been wearing on the night of June 6, before he got changed on the morning of June 7.

These items of clothing had blood stains on them and DNA which matched both Khan and Mr Read.

The hammer found by police also contained the DNA of both men.

The jury heard how police later recovered a pair of scissors from Mr Read’s Leamington Road flat which contained blood stains belonging to Mr Read and also Khan.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Dr Wilson told the jury that Mr Read’s cause of death had been determined as multiple injuries.

He also said that Mr Read had been covered “head to toe” in injuries, with 105 separate areas of injury identified, with each area containing multiple more injuries.

On his skull, Dr Wilson said 46 separate areas of injury had been identified “all over his head, the back and the front of his scalp, literally all over”, causing bleeding and swelling of the brain.

It was heard that his cheek bones and jaw had been fractured and detached, which had caused him to swallow blood.

He also told the jury that there were injuries consistent with blunt force from the round end of a hammer, the end used to hammer in nails; the claw end of a hammer; and the blades of scissors.

Mr Read had also been stabbed with the scissors multiple times on his buttocks.

Further injuries were noted on his torso, legs, and his arms, including fractures on Mr Read’s hands consistent with self defence wounds.

Toxicology showed that Mr Read had cocaine and morphine in his system, but Dr Wilson ruled this out as a contributing factor in his cause of death.

He said the scissor wounds would probably have been survivable alone, and it was the hammer wounds which had been lethal.

After his death, in a tribute Mr Read's family said: “David was a lovely caring man and had a strong bond with his parents.

"He was known as the gentle giant and will be sadly missed by his family and friends.”

Khan denies murder. The trial continues.