Driver tells of night of Godmanchester shooting

A DISABLED man with multiple sclerosis became embroiled in a doorstep shooting after agreeing to give a friend a lift “as a favour”, a court heard.

Martin Hunt, 57, told Peterborough Crown Court today (Wednesday) he agreed to drive his friend Travis Pratt to Godmanchester on June 1 of last year to settle a dispute over a debt – but had not known anything about the shotgun which was used to shoot a 41-year-old man.

Hunt said that Pratt arranged for another man, Harry Beddoes, to come along too, and that during the journey Pratt and Beddoes discussed stealing a stash of cocaine from the address in Anderson Crescent.

Adam Jordan, who was not the owner of the house, suffered serious injuries to his groin and thigh and spent six days in hospital following the incident.

Hunt, of Dowthorpe End, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, and Beddoes, 24, of Henshaw Road, Wellingborough, have both pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Beddoes is also charged with aggravated burglary and unlawful wounding, both of which he denies. On Monday, 29-year-old Pratt of Station Road, Earls Barton, pleaded guilty to all three charges.

After being directed by Pratt to a house in Anderson Crescent in Godmanchester, Hunt told the court he waited in the car around the corner as Pratt and Beddoes went to the door of the house.

When Mr Jordan answered the door, a shot was fired and Pratt and Beddoes fled. An out-of-breath Beddoes returned to the car first, soon followed by Pratt, described by Hunt as being “agitated”.

Hunt told jurors: “I said ‘What’s going on’? [Travis] said ‘A gun’s gone off’.

“I was going mad. I was shouting at Travis, I was shouting at Harry.

“I was enraged. [I thought] what the hell’s going on?”

Pratt denied having brought the gun, and Hunt said the three men had an argument about it. Beddoes denies bringing the gun on the journey.

Hunt said he did not see the gun at any point.

“I said to him [Pratt] ‘where’s the gun now?’ He said ‘It’s here, down here,’ by the chair and the door.

“I said ‘Well get rid of it because I’m not driving around with a gun that you just used to shoot someone’,” said Hunt.

Hunt added that he felt he had been “taken for a fool” at being drawn into the situation by Pratt, with whom he had been friends for many years, and Beddoes, who claims he attended only to support Pratt in his dispute.

“I thought I was going to take Travis to an address to see somebody who owed him money,” said Hunt.

“As we came into [Godmanchester] I was aware of Travis and Harry having a conversation along the lines of ‘I think the bloke’s a drug dealer and we might have some of that as well.’

“I thought that wasn’t right. I wished I wasn’t there.”

Hunt admitted he had not told the truth in his police interviews because he was “petrified” about the situation he had found himself in.

“I was being questioned for a murder charge and I had no idea that anybody had been murdered. My whole mind was in turmoil,” Hunt said.

“I didn’t want to be a grass for Travis. I didn’t consider the severity of my own position.

“As far as I was concerned I had given someone a lift as a favour because their car had been playing up.”

The case continues.