One of two men accused of murdering a missing businesswoman has described claims that he abducted and tortured her as "total fantasy".
Philip Wade, 42, told the High Court in Glasgow that the accounts given by his two former co-accused, Paul Smith and David Parker, were "horrific" but not true.
Wade is on trial before Lord Pentland with 42-year-old Colin Coats. They deny holding and assaulting Lynda Spence at a flat in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, Ayrshire in April 2011 before murdering her.
Parker, 38, and Smith, 47, were accused of murder but were cleared after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of holding Ms Spence against her will and assaulting her. They both gave evidence in which they said they were asked by Wade and Coats to detain her at the flat, and that the two accused men would arrive every day to inflict violence on her.
Wade has already given evidence in his defence, and was cross-examined by solicitor general Lesley Thomson QC, for the prosecution. She asked him: "The account that was given by Smith and Parker, it was horrific in its detail of daily violence wasn't it Mr Wade?"
Ms Thomson said: "But oddly, on hearing that horrific story your defence counsel Gary Allan said the thing you were most shocked about from Paul Smith's evidence was that he said you had taken drugs in front of your kids?"
Wade replied: "The rest of the story is total fantasy but I would never take drugs in front of my kids."
The solicitor general said: "Whatever way you look at it, (Parker and Smith) are going to spend a long time in prison. Is that seriously your position, that their story is total fantasy?" Wade replied that it was.
Parker and Smith are due to be sentenced on Monday.
