PLEA U-TURN HALTS LINN MURDER TRIAL; Pair admit to handling pounds 40,000 of stolen tools.

TWO men yesterday admitted handling an alleged murder victim's property, in a dramatic change of plea.

Martin Birnie and Christopher Miller admitted the reset of 38-year-old Snap On Tools salesman Gary Linn's stock, worth pounds 40,000, at the start of the fourth day of their trial.

Birnie, 33, of Mayfield, Dalkeith, and Miller, 31, of Mossend, Gorebridge, both Midlothian, had their pleas of not guilty to stealing Gary's van, CD player and pounds 1000 in cash accepted by the prosecution at the High Court in Glasgow.

The pair are in the dock alongside Owen Anderson, 30, who denies murdering Gary and attempting to pervert the course of justice by disposing of the body.

They admit handling the tools at Birnie's garage in Loanhead, Midlothian on August 31 last year - the day Gary, of Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, vanished.

It is claimed Anderson killed Gary with a hammer or other blunt object at his flat in Johnston Avenue, Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire, that day.

His van was found burnt out the next day but his body was only found nine months later, under a bridge at Temple, Midlothian.

One of Birnie's employees, mechanic Stephen McCaw has told the trial a Snap On Tools van was driven into the workshop on August 31.

He said a man who he identified as looking similar to Anderson got out and seemed upset to see him, shouting at Birnie: "It was supposed to be us here."

Mr McCaw claimed he was sent away for an hour by his boss and when he returned the van and the man were gone, but boxes of Snap On Tools were in the workshop.

He alleged the boxes of tools were then taken to the home of Miller, a friend of Birnie.

Mr McCaw claimed three days later, Birnie read a newspaper report about Gary Linn's disappearance and rushed out of the workshop.

He asked Birnie if it had been the missing salesman in the workshop and Birnie told him to mind his own business.

After yesterday's change of pleas, Anderson's trial was halted to allow both the prosecution and defence to take statements from Birnie and Miller to determine if they should be called as witnesses.

The pair's bail was continued, but both men were warned by judge Lord Emslie that they will have to be present at the start of each day's proceedings until the end of the trial, when they will be sentenced.

Anderson has lodged a special defence of incrimination claiming that the killer is a man known only as Stevie, who comes from the Edinburgh area.

The trial continues.