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I hid behind TV because I was naked, accused tells court

A man found hiding behind a television set during a police raid denied he was trying to avoid being arrested.

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Nicholas Alexander told a jury he was naked and trying to hide his modesty when officers discovered him in the bedroom of his girlfriend's home. The 26-year-old was disturbed by detectives investigating a break-in at a house near Bridgnorth, Stafford Crown Court heard.

Mr Stephen Brown, prosecuting, said there was a five-minute gap between police entering the house and reaching the bedroom, during which Alexander removed a simcard from his phone. Mr Brown said the card would have provided evidence incriminating him. The British national, who lived in America until 2012, claimed he had removed the simcard to stream a Miami radio station to his iPhone beside the bed.

The phone was retrievedunder a pillow but officers did not discover an iPhone or any trace of the simcard.

Mr Brown said Alexander's girlfriend created a commotion and deliberately obstructed the police from going upstairs.

Alexander, Levi Wilson, 19, Donovan Wilson, 18, Omari Maitland, 18, and Simone O'Neil, 22, deny burglary at the detached house where a £7,500 Audi A6, keys to a BMW motorbike, a handbag containing cash and bank cards, and a laptop were stolen.

The robbers told the owners they were armed, and later two imitation weaponswere recovered. The court heard evidence that put Alexander's mobile phone in Brierley Hill, Penn Fields and Bridgnorth on the evening of the break-in at the same time as O' Neil's phone and that alleged to be owned by Levi Wilson.

The defendants claim not to know each other.

O'Neill is alleged to have driven the men to and from the scene.

Alexander, of Chorley Gardens, Bilston, brothers Levi and Donovan Wilson, both of Cross Lane, Dudley, Maitland, of Leslie Road, Park Village, Wolverhampton, and O'Neil, of Marshall Road, Willenhall, also deny being in possession of the imitation weapons.

The trial continues.

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