A man lied about witnessing a murder in the hope of getting "a lot of money" from the Police "for a nice trip", a Police officer told Supreme Court.

The false witness tried to rope in a woman to lie to the Police too but found himself arrested when he got found out, according to Inspector Jerome Laws.

The trial of Darronte Dill, the 19-year-old accused of killing Maxwell Brangman and Frederick Gilbert, has heard how the witness told Police he saw another suspect, Roger Lightbourne Sr. attacking Mr. Brangman.

The role of that witness referred to in court yesterday as Mr. X and Witness X was raised by Anesta Weeks QC, the lawyer for Dill who is the sole defendant on trial.

In answer to Ms Weeks' questions, Insp. Laws said Mr. X called Crimestoppers with the information on September 26, 2008. That was five days after the victims were killed as they slept in a hut near the Black Horse Tavern in St. David's early on September 21.

Mr. X made a Police statement the following day, and both Mr. Lightbourne Sr. and his son Roger Jr. were arrested that day. Mr. X made further statements on September 29 and 30 giving descriptions of Mr. Lightbourne Sr. and an alleged accomplice, whom he could not identify.

Insp. Laws told the jury Mr. Lightbourne Sr. spent time in Westgate in relation to the case until he was released in January 2009. Mr. Lightbourne Jr. was put on Police bail in early October 2008. Meanwhile, Mr. X expressed concern over people knowing he was assisting the Police and was moved to a safe house.

Asked by prosecutor Carrington Mahoney what became of the person who was assisting the Police, Insp. Laws replied: "In Witness X's statement there is information in relation to the fact that when he witnessed this incident that there was another person present with him at the time of the incident.

"For several months Witness X refused to divulge the name or the identity of the person that had witnessed this incident with him. Subsequently I eventually met with Witness X and the person that he had alleged had witnessed this incident.

"A statement was recorded from the person that alleged they had witnessed the incident with Witness X. The statement of the second person was reviewed and several discrepancies were identified.

"This other person was reinterviewed about the discrepancies and subsequently provided another statement stating that they were never with Witness X at the time of Witness X allegedly seeing this incident and that Witness X had encouraged this person to provide false information to the Police investigation team to try and corroborate his alleged account of what he witnessed."

Mr. Mahoney asked Insp. Laws if he'd been able to ascertain why he'd asked the other person to lie. The officer replied: "We were informed that Mr. X had told them that the Police was going to pay him a lot of money for his evidence and that if she corroborated they could use the money to go away on a nice trip."

Mr. Mahoney inquired: "Was there any truth to that about the Police being willing to pay a lot of money?"

Insp. Laws replied: "No, not at all." He went on to explain that Mr. X was arrested for conspiring to bring false accusations, but he was not charged and charges are not being pursued.

Insp. Laws confirmed that Mr. X has not been called as a witness in the case against Dill. He explained: "Based on the evidence provided by the other person it was believed by the investigation team that Mr. X had not witnessed the assaults on the victims in this matter."–Dill denies two charges of murder and the case continues.