Michael Chudley had long been a keen shot, enjoying particularly clay pigeon shooting, visiting the Urchfont clay shooting club with his former girlfriend Carol Smith.

He owned two expensive shotguns, valued at £7,000, which had to be sold after the court case against Christopher Sear went sour on him.

But he owned a third as well. It was a cheaper firearm, “a Spanish job” as Chudley described it, which he bought from Bradford on Avon gun dealer Mark Westall some 15 years ago, through a third party. an Irish labourer who worked for him.

He bought the gun because Ms Smith had a new boyfriend, Brian Lewis, whom Chudley believed wanted him dead. Once the perceived threat from Mr Lewis had disappeared, Chudley greased gun well, packed it in a metal box and bricked it up behind a wall at Kingfisher House.

Following the alleged robbery at the house in September 2009, Chudley retrieved the gun and shortened the barrel to just three or four inches beyond the end of the stock.

He told the court he knew this was illegal but, he said, he was in fear of his life and shortening the barrel made it quicker to use. It also gives it a much wider field of spray, particularly useful when being attacked, as Chudley felt he would be, by two assailants at once.

He loaded it and put it in a holdall, which he carried in his car. It was this gun that he carried into the premises of MGW Law on the afternoon of Monday July 2 last year.

And it was this gun that he pointed at Mr Ward as he stood behind his desk on the phone to a client.

He fired once, causing Mr Ward serious head injuries from which he subsequently died nearly three weeks later in the intensive care unit at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.