Video has emerged of two life long criminals shooting each other with the same gun after becoming embroiled in a fight outside a pub.
The shootout began after James Freeman took the gun to the boozer to hunt for Alan Roberts.
CCTV footage from the bar shows how Roberts initially ran into the pub to evade his attacker.
When his “assassin” came in he tried to grab the loaded pistol from Freeman, however as the pair wrestled over the weapon, it went off striking the groin of Roberts with two bullet fragments.
Two men came to the aid of Roberts and helped kick and punch Freeman to the floor before the “victim” grabbed the gun and shot Freeman at close range.
A judge today said Roberts tried to shoot Freeman, but the gun “misfired”, so he turned and “racked” it to eject the cartridge.
He then fired twice into Freeman’s chest at “point blank range” when he was “overpowered” and “no longer a threat”.
High Court judge Mr Justice Martin Spencer said “miraculously” Freeman survived, but he now has one bullet lodged permanently in his lung and another near his heart.
The two men appeared separately at Liverpool Crown Court to be sentenced over the shootout, which took place outside the Old Bank Pub, on the first day after lockdown ended on Monday, May 17 last year.
Roberts was cleared of attempted murder at a trial, after claiming he acted in self-defence against an “assassin”, according to Liverpool Echo.
The 30-year-old, from Page Moss but now of Heyes Street, Everton, said he thought Freeman might be reaching into his pocket for a second weapon.
But he was convicted of wounding with intent and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life - charges Freeman admitted before the trial began.
Prosecutors accepted those pleas from Freeman, 24, of Pennard Avenue, Huyton, and offered no evidence on the attempted murder charge against him.
The court heard Freeman, on an electric bike, went to the Old Bank earlier that evening, looking for his target.
Roberts and his girlfriend Chloe Price arrived at the pub in Princess Drive at 8.17pm and were standing on a patio area.
Hooded and masked Freeman appeared, jumped off his bike and headed for “spooked” Roberts, who ran into the pub, but would later claim he didn’t know his attacker.
Justice Spencer said “I find that difficult to believe” and said he was sure Roberts probably recognised Freeman and thought - rightly - he was in danger.
He told Roberts: “I’ve no doubt that up until that point Freeman was the aggressor and you were defending yourself and probably fighting for your life.”
The judge said Roberts was wounded in the groin “albeit not seriously” when the gun went off, but after two men intervened on his behalf, he took hold of the weapon.
Roberts told the jury that when he shot Freeman, he thought he was “going to be killed”, because he saw him reach into his pocket for what could have been a second gun.
Justice Spencer rejected that claim, telling him: “You knew you were no longer in danger from Freeman and no longer needed to defend yourself.
“Freeman had been disarmed. The right thing to have done would be to wait for the police to arrive and hand the gun over to them.
“However, instead of doing that, you decided to take the law into your own hands.”
Roberts, who fled with the gun on Freeman’s bike, told the jury he ditched both in a nearby field, which the judge said was “implausible”.
He was next seen two hours later at Whiston Hospital with Miss Price, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his left groin.
A firearms expert said a bullet likely struck something in his tracksuit pocket, such as a mobile phone, but Roberts insisted there was nothing there.
Justice Spencer said the weapon had never been found and “may remain available for criminal use”.
He said: “You did nothing to assist the police in recovering that gun, even though you were the only person who knew where it was.
Freeman managed to “stumble off” and reached Barkbeth Road, where he told a resident: “I think I’ve been shot.”
He was taken to Aintree hospital with two gunshot wounds to the chest and a cut left eye socket.
Doctors decided it was safer not to remove the bullets, which Justice Spencer said “miraculously” didn’t prove fatal.
He told Roberts: “Had they been, you would almost certainly have been found guilty of murder.”
The judge accepted Roberts didn’t intend to kill Freeman.
But he said just as David McLachlan, QC, prosecuting, had put to him in cross-examination: “You shot James Freeman as an act of retaliation and revenge.”
Freeman has five previous convictions for seven offences.
In April 2016, at the age of 18, he was locked up for three years and four months for possessing a loaded gun and breach of bail, after fleeing to Spain.
Andrew Radcliffe, QC, defending Freeman, said he had written a letter expressing his remorse.
He said at the time of the shooting he was suffering from PTSD, as a result of being stabbed when he was 15.
Mr Radcliffe said his client had been self-medicating on prescribed medication, which a psychiatrist found influenced his thinking at the time.
Justice Spencer said: “These offences are extremely worrying. Going into a crowded public place with a loaded firearm and discharging it.
“It’s difficult to imagine anything more dangerous than that.”
The judge found Freeman was “dangerous” and jailed him for 14 and a half years, with an extended four years on licence.
He must serve at least around nine years behind bars before he can apply for his release, and will only be let out then if the Parole Board decides he is no longer a risk.
Roberts’ 12 previous convictions for 33 offences include attempted robbery and possessing an imitation firearm.
That was at the age of 16 in 2009, when he was locked up for for six and a half years.
Nick Johnson, QC, defending Roberts, said it was difficult to conceive that sentencing guidelines would have foreseen a situation where someone facing sentence for a serious firearms offence would only have had the gun “because he himself was under deadly attack with that very same gun”.
He argued because of the “virtually unique circumstances”, which were “not ever desired” by Roberts, the sentence should be “way below” what would normally be imposed.
Justice Spencer said Roberts always accepted his involvement, unlike Freeman, who gave a “bogus alibi”.
He accepted Roberts initially had the gun as a result of being the “victim” and if he hadn’t initially defended himself, “in all likelihood you would have been shot much more seriously and probably killed”.
However, he said it wasn’t “excessive self-defence” and Roberts went from being the “victim” to the “aggressor”, even if it was in response to “extreme violence” when he was “initially fighting for your life”.
Justice Spencer said: “I don’t believe for a minute your evidence at the trial that you thought or feared he was reaching for a second gun.”
He jailed Roberts for 12 years, of which he will have to serve two thirds - eight years - in prison.
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