Man 'executed' and partner hurt by masked intruder, jury told

Neville Corby, who died. was pursued into two upstairs bedrooms before he was finally blasted at close range.

"It was nothing short of execution of a defenceless man," Richard Mansell QC, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.

Craig Freear, Mr Corby's partner who was also shot, managed to escape from a bathroom window and survived.

Their attacker, alleged to be Ernest Wright, confronted Mr Freear when he opened the

door to leave for work on March 30 last year from his home in Ashbourne Road, Bolton, Bradford.

Mr Mansell told the jury Wright, who was wearing a balaclava and carrying a sawn-off shotgun, had involved himself in an "increasingly bitter dispute" with the two men after he befriended Mr Freear's disabled mother and persuaded her to get her benefits paid into his account.

As Mr Freear was joined at the bottom of the staircase by Mr Corby, who was wearing only his underwear, he asked Wright what he was doing.

"But Wright said not a word. He simply pointed the gun at both men and then, without warning, fired the first of six shots towards the bottom of that staircase."

That shot struck Mr Corby in the chest with some of the pellets hitting his partner and the wooden stairwell. The two men fled upstairs, with Mr Freear taking refuge in the bathroom while Mr Corby went into the main bedroom.

Mr Mansell told the jury the order of Wright's next five shots was not clear. "Suffice it to say he had to break and re-load the gun twice in order to fire six shots from the double-barrelled gun."

It was probable the next shot was through the bathroom door because a large quantity of pellets struck Mr Freear in the right shoulder causing life threatening injuries.

"However, miraculously, he managed to climb on to the edge of the bath and through the transom window, jumping to the ground below and scrambling into a neighbour's garden, where he laid low until paramedics could attend the scene.

"This left Mr Corby alone and helpless in the main bedroom of the house." Mr Mansell said one shot was fired through the door and another in the room, one of them struck Mr Corby's left shoulder before he ran into a smaller bedroom.

He was frantically trying to open the window there when Wright shot him again in the shoulder and neck and struck him, probably with the butt of the gun, a hard blow to the head fracturing his skull.

Mr Corby was crouched down near the bedroom door when Wright fired the final and fatal shot from close range.

The prosecution claim Wright went into hiding for weeks before he was finally arrested on April 29.

Wright, 68 of Howarth Crescent, Swain House, Bradford, denies murdering Mr Corby, the attempted murder of Mr Freear, and two charges of having a shotgun with intent to commit murder.

Mr Mansell told the jury it was understood the defendant was maintaining he was not the gunman and had an alibi.

He said Mr Freear's mother Melissa Crocker, 57, was physically disabled and had mental health issues. She was described by her Community Support Worker as "financially unsophisticated" and because she was "very vulnerable to manipulation" her son received her benefit payments directly into his bank account and he would pay her bills and do her shopping . She had previously lived with him and Mr Corby but there was friction because she found Mr Corby controlling and a bully.

Her son then found her a flat just below Wright's in Howarth Crescent. He became friendly with her and, on March 25, a letter was submitted to have her benefits paid through Wright's bank account.

Mr Mansell told the jury: "Whether he did it for genuine or selfish motives is a matter you may wish to consider in the course of the trial."

The trial continues.