A gay man was “executed” and his partner was left fighting for life when they were attacked in their Bradford home by a masked gunman, a jury heard.

Ernest Wright used a sawn-off shotgun to murder Neville Corby, 42, and left his partner Craig Freear with horrific wounds, a Crown Court jury heard.

Mr Freear, 31, managed to jump to safety from an upstairs bathroom window after being blasted in the arm and chest, the court was told.

But Corby was cornered in a front bedroom where he was “executed” with a single shot fired from point blank range, prosecutor Richard Mansell QC told Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.

Wright had been waiting outside the couple’s home in Ashbourne Road, Bolton, Bradford, on the morning of March 30 last year, it was alleged.

Dressed in a black balaclava mask and wielding the double-barrelled weapon, he confronted Mr Freear as he opened his front door to go to work, said Mr Mansell.

The 68-year-old then followed Mr Freear inside the house, to see Mr Corby walking down the stairs, the court heard. He pointed the gun at both men and fired, hitting Mr Corby in the chest, Mr Mansell QC said.

Wright followed the terrified couple upstairs to where Mr Freear had taken refuge in the bathroom, the court heard. Wright fired a single shot through the bathroom door, which blew through a fabric blind and hit Mr Freear’s right shoulder, inflicting a life-threatening wound, the jury was told.

Bleeding heavily, Mr Freear managed to climb on to the edge of the bath where he was able to scramble from an open bathroom transom window to safety.

Mr Corby had barricaded himself behind a bedroom door but Wright, re-loading his weapon, fired through the door, hitting the man in the chest, said Mr Mansell.

He fired another shot as Mr Corby ran to the front bedroom, where a neighbour saw him desperately trying to escape from a closed upstairs window.

Re-loading again, Wright shot Mr Corby in the shoulder, splattering the bedroom ceiling with blood, the court heard.

Mr Justice Openshaw heard how Wright then clubbed Mr Corby in the head using the butt of the gun, fracturing his skull, before firing a final shot as he crouched in front of him.

“It blew away part of his neck severing the jugular vein, from which it was inevitable he would die.

“This was nothing short of the execution of a defenceless man,” Mr Mansell QC told the jury of seven men and five women.

The court heard how Wright then took the keys to Mr Freear’s blue Vauxhall Astra and drove away.

He swapped vehicles then collected Mr Freear’s mother, Melissa Crocker, from a flat in Shipley he and she had rented together.

Mr Mansell said they drove to a solicitor’s office in Leeds, where they had an injunction taken out against both Mr Corby and Mr Freear.

Wright then went into hiding.

He was arrested 30 days later, in a flat close to his home in Howarth Crescent, Swain House, Bradford.

Forensics experts matched DNA from cells taken from a shotgun cartridge found on the staircase to Wright, the court heard.

Paramedics took Mr Freear to hospital where surgeons saved his life, operating on lacerations on his right lung.

Wright denies murder, attempted murder, and two charges of having a firearm with intent to commit murder.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.