Alleged Bradford gunman tells court how he wrote to police over their search for him

Ernest Wright, 68, even wrote to police after Neville Corby, 42, was executed with a shotgun blast in the neck and his boyfriend Craig Freear badly injured with a shot in the chest at their home in Bradford a year ago.

The jury at Newcastle Crown Court has been told Wright, who denies murder, was out of prison on licence at the time and feared he would be returned to jail if he was arrested, so he went into hiding although he was aware police were looking for him.

Wright yesterday told the court he wrote to police from Morecambe and Heysham, Lancashire, before moving back to his usual neighbourhood in Howarth Crescent, Swain House, Bradford.

Wright said: “[I moved] next door but one from my house.”

Friends helped him during the 30 days he was in hiding between the couple being shot and him being arrested, he told the court today.

Wright said he saw newspaper coverage of the shootings and saw his photograph had been issued by police.

Robert Smith QC, defending, asked him: “Were you in any way responsible for shooting Mr Corby and Mr Freear?”

Wright replied: “No.”

A masked gunman burst into their home in Ashbourne Road, Bolton, and Mr Corby was killed, while Mr Freear escaped by jumping out of the bathroom window.

The court heard the couple were in dispute with Wright over his friendship with Mr Freear’s 57-year-old disabled mother Melissa Crocker.

She had her benefits paid into her son’s account, but Wright had helped her to stop the arrangement.

He claimed at the time of the shooting he was taking her to his solicitor in Leeds to win an injunction against the couple.

Richard Mansell QC, prosecuting, in cross-examination, asked why Wright befriended vulnerable Miss Crocker, who lived in the flat below him.

He said: “I felt sorry for her.”

But he agreed he had told a friend she was “annoying” and got on his nerves with her late-night requests for cigarettes. The trial continues.