A MAN accused of the murder of a drugs runner in Basingstoke wrote a threatening letter to his co-defendant, a court has heard.

Olamide Soyege told Terence Maccabee what to say when he gave evidence earlier this week, meaning that some of what the 19-year-old had said was a lie, Judge Martin Spencer told jurors on Thursday.

He also said that the teenager, who did not appear in the dock on Thursday, was "scared" of Soyege, and that jurors should not hold that against him when reaching a verdict next week.

The court had previously heard how Soyege, 29 from Dagenham, would "throw his weight around" and take liberties with drug dealers, often paying below the asking price or taking the drugs for free.

The latest revelation comes at the beginning of closing statements in the murder trial of Taylor Williams.

Williams was 18 when he was stabbed to death in Shooters Way last August, after what the prosecution claims was a failed robbery.

Sarah Jones QC told the court that Soyege was "playing around" as if he were a "usual user" that evening, when actually his sole intention was to rob class A drugs from multiple lines and sell the contraband on.

She said that he had invasively robbed a drugs runner from the Coco county lines network in Bermuda Park, Popley earlier that evening, before selling off the heroin to waiting customers.

"[A witness] said Soyege went along and punched him, the runner, straight to the stomach," she told the court. "Some drugs flew out of his mouth.

"He got dragged off down an alley by [Soyege] and Paige Taylor. The [Maccabee] and [a witness] followed."

"[Soyege] and Paige Taylor took things out of his bottom, Paige had the spoon. This isn’t exactly a surgical procedure.

"This was not Soyege as a user getting crack for himself. What was got from the runner was not kept by Soyege.

"We live in the real world, the notion of an addict of class A drugs not accepting drugs from another dealer like a middle class shopper trying to decided whether to buy Fairtrade is not from the real world."

Soyege, Maccabee and Taylor then allegedly tracked down the Ray network, who had cuckooed a flat in Kingfisher House, Shooters Way.

"The same thing starts to happen at 10pm. It also tells you what Soyege, Maccabee and Taylor are about.

"It tells you what they’re doing that day. They’re not users buying drugs and using drugs until two hours later they find they haven’t bought enough.

"They’re acting as a group and using violence to take what is not theirs and sell it on. After all, they set about both in exactly the same way.”

After gaining entry to the drugs den in Kingfisher House, Soyege allegedly locks the door behind him and Maccabee, before they are said to make the three drug runners of the Ray network - Taylor Williams, Prince Orefo and Seth Mensah - squat so that an intimate search for drugs could be carried out.

"[Soyege] does not want to pay for his drugs. You know this from his own account, he can’t help but play up his ego, even as he tells nonsensical lies about his relationship with the Coco line.

"He wants you to know that the ordinary rules don’t apply to him; he’s special. His ability to use words, his willing ways with women, they all speak to his projection of himself.

"This is just utter nonsense. Inviting someone like Soyege into your base is like inviting a fox into your hen shed, it will all end in bloodshed and chaos. He isn’t looking to buy drugs, he is looking for the source.”

Both Maccabee and Soyege are accused of murder, robbery and conspiracy to rob. Maccabee was acquitted of possession of a knife in Shooters Way after the judge deemed that he had no case to answer. Meanwhile, Soyege still stands accused of that charge.

Maccabee is also accused of having a knife in Bermuda Park, Popley, earlier that evening.

Paige Taylor is not accused of murder, but does stand trial charged with robbery and conspiracy to rob.

The trio deny all charges. The trial continues.