A Swindon woman told a jury of her terror when she saw a gunman wearing a clown mask trying to force open the front door of her home.

"I s*** myself!" said Natasha Hunt from the witness box at Gloucester Crown Court on Wednesday (May 1).

She was giving evidence against neighbour Dean Snarey, 42, who is accused of taking an imitation pistol with him to her front door and later putting it to her son's head and firing it.

The prosecution say he fired the gun as part of his demand for payment of an £800 debt owed to him by another occupant of her home in Burns Way, Swindon.

Snarey, who lived three doors away in Burns Way, has denied charges of blackmail, possession of an imitation firearm while committing an offence, and possessing the gun with intent to cause fear of violence.

The jury at Cirencester Courthouse has been told that during the incident on October 6 last year Snarey fired the gun very close to her son Cameron who was temporarily deafened and blinded by the blast.

Ms Hunt was asked today by prosecutor Emily Evans how she felt when she first saw Snarey at the front door wearing a clown mask and latex gloves.

"Petrified," said Ms Hunt.

The judge, Recorder David Chidgey, intervened "She has already said that when she saw him she s*** herself - I think that covers it!"

Read more: Swindon neighbour in clown mask 'fired gun in row over debt'

Swindon Advertiser: Images from the scene of the crime, Burns Way, October 6, 2023

The jury has been told that Mr Snarey had sold a car to Keith Goodings, who owns the house in which Ms Hunt lived with her son, and was demanding payment of £800.

Ms Hunt said that she had been receiving messages from Snarey early that morning about the debt but Mr Goodings was not at home because the previous day he had taken an overdose and an ambulance had been called. He had refused to go in the ambulance, she said, but later had been taken into what she described as 'protective custody.'

Ms Hunt said when Snarey arrived at the house that morning he tried so forcibly to open the front door that he damaged the locking mechanism - making it impossible to open from inside.

She said she told her son to go out of the back door and climb over the garage to get to the front and see Snarey.

"I was in the hallway still trying to get out of my front door when I heard a bang," she said. "I didn't see the gun but I heard it.

"Cameron was outside at the time, trying to get in through the front door with the key. The next thing I heard was the gun going off.

"I got frantic and tried to open the door again but it wouldn't work.  All I could see was my son going down the driveway holding onto the caravan parked outside to guide him out onto the street because he couldn't see.

"I went upstairs to see if I could see my son out on the street and see whether he had been shot or not."

Defence barrister James Robertson suggested to Ms Hunt that Snarey had fired the gun towards the ground and that her son had been about two metres away at the time.

She reiterated that she had not seen the incident, only heard it.

When she was upstairs after the shot was fired she saw her son come walking back to the house and she told him to climb back over the garage and come in, she said.

Mr Robertson suggested that at no stage had Snarey tried to force open the front door that morning. She replied that he did, several times, and that was how the mechanism was broken.

Ms Hunt told the jury that soon after the incident there was a police helicopter hovering overhead, the street was cordoned off and there were several officers outside.

Mr Robertson challenged her evidence that after the firing of the gun Snarey had warned her not to call the police and told her that if she did there would be 'real bullets next time.'

"Yes he did say that," she told the court.

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Mr Robertson suggested that when Snarey arrived at the door he had the imitation gun with him and said he wanted to show it to Cameron.

"No, I didn't even know he had a gun," she said. "He certainly didn't ask to speak to Cameron."

She agreed with Mr Robertson that Snarey had often visited her and Mr Goodings in the past and sometimes stayed with them when he was having work done at his home. They had also cared for his bulldog 'King' at times and were looking after the dog at the time of the alleged offences, she said.

The jury has been todl that Snarey accepts he was wearing a clown mask that day but maintains it was a joke.

He denies making any unwarranted demand with menaces or giving Ms Hunt an ultimatum about how quickly she had to find the money owned by Mr Goodings.

He claims he took the gun with him because Cameron wanted to look at it with a view to buying it from him.

The trial continues.