TWO litter pickers have described their shock at discovering the bound body of a dead man in a car park.

Dean Seddon and Peter O’Connor were working at the three car parks at Anglezarke Reservoir, near Rivington, on February 2 last year when they found the body of 22-year-old Umair Waseem.

Manchester Crown Court yesterday heard that Mr Seddon was dispatched to the lower car park while his boss, Mr O’Connor, was working on the top car park.

Mr Seddon told the court: “I noticed there was something in the corner of the car park.

"I thought it was a tree stump at first, some sort of tree that had been burnt out.”

Me Seddon walked closer and realised that it was a dead body.

There was snow on the man’s chest and he had been tied up.

Mr Seddon shouted for his colleague and called the police.

In a statement which was read to the court, Mr O’Connor said: “I heard Dean say, ‘Pete, I’m not joking, I swear to God there’s a dead body over here’.

"I could tell straight away from the look on Dean’s face that he wasn’t messing about. He looked like he had had a bit of a shock.”

Mr O’Connor went for a closer look at the body and said he could see that the man had suffered a bash on the head and that his face was an odd shape.

The man’s hands were tied behind his back and his legs were tied together.

“I was really shocked because I had never seen a dead body before,” Mr O’Connor added.

The prosecution allege that Mr Waseem, of Fern Street, Deane, had been beaten to death over a £7,000 debt.

Faisal Aslam, aged 24, of Clarendon Road, Whalley Range, Manchester; Asim Khan, aged 27, of Radcliffe Road, Bolton; and Aroon Asad, aged 21, of Vaughan Road, Chorlton, Manchester, all deny conspiracy to commit murder.

The case continues.