The girlfriend of a man accused of murdering a pregnant Asian woman said yesterday he came home the night the woman died with blood on his hand and clothing.

Mrs Ann McBarron claimed 25-year-old Christopher Jones told her he had ''left some guy for dead''.

''There was blood on his hand and clothing and he said he had been in a fight with two men in an alleyway,'' she told the High Court in Glasgow.

Next day, she read that 32-year-old Mrs Rajwinder Bassi had been found murdered in her flat. Three days later, police came to her home in Hamilton Crescent, Cambuslang, and arrested Mr Jones.

Mrs McBarron, 36, also told the court Mr Jones had told her someone asked him to be a hit-man and he would get #500 and jewellery but she thought he was joking.

She was giving evidence at the trial of Mr Jones, 25, of Lilybank Avenue, and Mrs Gurmit Bassi, 33, of Conan Court, both Cambuslang.

They deny stabbing and murdering Mrs Rajwinder Bassi in her flat in Woodlands Drive, Woodside, Glasgow, on April 13 this year.

Earlier, the court heard Mr Bassi had divorced Mrs Gurmit Bassi. The dead woman, who was seven months' pregnant, was his second wife.

Mrs McBarron said she had been Mr Jones's girlfriend for two years at the time and he often stayed overnight.

Mr Jones would leave in the morning to work at one of the local shops and, shortly before the murder, told her someone came into the shop and asked if he knew a hit-man or if he wanted to be one.

On April 13, Mr Jones came to her house ''crying and shaking'' and asked to speak to her in the bedroom in case her daughter heard.

She said Mr Jones told her he had been ''jumped'' by two men with knives and he had finished up kicking one of them on the ground.

Mrs McBarron said Mr Jones told her: ''I think I've left the guy for dead.''

She gave him a cloth to wipe the blood off his hand and noticed there was blood on his shoes, jeans, and socks.

Three days later, police came to the house, arrested Mr Jones, and took away items of clothing.

Earlier yesterday, Steven Bassi, 14, broke down and wept on the witness stand when told his mother was blaming him and his father for the murder.

He agreed with Mr Donald Findlay QC, for Mr Jones, that out of respect to his mother, he had lied in evidence about Mr Jones going upstairs alone in Woodside Drive.

The boy then told Mr Findlay his mother and Mr Jones went upstairs together after he had given them the keys and that they came down together after five minutes.

Two taxi drivers claimed Mrs Bassi asked them a few days before the murder if they knew where she could get a hit-man but they thought she was joking.

Another cabbie said he picked up a white male and an Asian woman at Conan Court on the night of April 13 and drove them to Woodside Drive at 9.25pm.

Another taxi driver said he saw a white male and an Asian woman getting out of a taxi in Main Street, Rutherglen, the same night after 10pm and going to a bank cash machine.

They got into his cab which was at a rank and he dropped the male off in Hamilton Road and the woman at Halfway, Cambuslang.

Mr John Peacock, 25, said he was going up the stairs at Woodside Drive that night about 9.40pm to visit his girlfriend, when a white male and an Asian woman hurried past him on the way down.

A young Asian boy had been holding the close door open when he entered.

The trial, before Lord Marnoch, continues.