AN ARMED killer and his accomplice tried to smash their way into a house in Larkfield searching for a man who was not home.

Kenneth Hendry and Jordan Boyd turned up at the address armed with a machete and samurai sword.

A man who was inside the house desperately tried to hold a door closed as blows were struck against it with weapons.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh was today shown footage of the incident caught on CCTV camera.

Advocate depute Iain McSporran said that Hendry, 31, and Boyd, 24, had turned up at the house in Cumberland Road expecting to find someone else there.

The prosecutor remarked: “It is perhaps good fortune that he was not.” He added that the pair were shouting aggressively in the street before mounting stairs and smashing a panel of glass in the front door Mr McSporran said that the victim tried to prevent the pair gaining access.

He said: “He was confronted by the accused who were brandishing weapons, demanding entry and clearly intent on gaining entry by force.” The prosecutor said the man in the house was behind the door as blows were struck against it.

Mr McSporran said: “He attempted to hold the door closed while the accused made determined efforts to gain entry.

“He was fearful that he was going to be seriously injured. In fact the only injury he sustained was a minor bleeding injury to the hand from pushing against the broken glass of the door.” Police arrived but Boyd escaped through the grounds of a nearby school while Hendry remained at the scene and was detained.

A samurai sword and a machete were recovered and DNA evidence linked the weapons to the pair.

Hendry, previously sentenced to 10 years - reduced on appeal to eight - after he was convicted of culpable homicide, is currently in custody.

He and unemployed Boyd, of Pembroke Road, Greenock, admitted possessing the weapons and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm on March 29 this year.

The pair had faced a further allegation of attempting to murder a man by trying to strike him with weapons and pouring petrol over him and setting it alight, but the Crown accepted their not guilty pleas to that charge.

The judge, Lady Scott, continued the case until next month at the High Court in Paisley when defence counsel will address her.