A pub "assassin" disarmed by a rival crook and shot twice in the chest has been involved in gun crime since he was just a boy.
James Freeman armed himself with a loaded pistol and hunted down Alan Roberts outside the Old Bank Pub in Page Moss.
The two men wrestled over the weapon in a doorway, when it went off, with two bullet fragments striking Roberts in the groin.
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But the "victim" grabbed the gun and with Freeman now "overpowered" and lying on the floor being kicked by two locals, opened fire in "retribution".
Roberts, 29, was this week cleared of attempted murder in relation to the terrifying pub shootout, on Monday, May 17 last year, after claiming he acted in self-defence against an "assassin".
But he was convicted of wounding with intent and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life - charges Freeman, 24, admitted before the trial began.
The ECHO can now detail Freeman's shocking criminal past, including how as a youth he fled to Spain after his DNA was found on a loaded pistol.
That followed an incident on the afternoon of April 29, 2015, when undercover police watched a 19-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Freeman, cycling around on bikes in Huyton.
The suspicious 19-year-old, who was wearing a distinctive grey North Face jacket and covering his face with a scarf to make sure he couldn't be recognised, boldly approached an undercover officer, who was sitting in a car near Barkbeth Road.
He asked the officer "are you following me?" and when the officer asked what he meant, replied "you're a bizzy", before he and Freeman cycled away.
Just 20 minutes later, police raided the 19-year-old's house, where they found the jacket he had been wearing, with a loaded gun in its pocket.
A magazine attached to the 8mm Bruni semi-automatic pistol had nine live rounds inside, with a tenth inside the gun's chamber.
The 19-year-old was arrested at the scene, while Freeman, who tried to run from the house, was caught nearby.
When forensic scientists examined the Italian-made firearm, they discovered Freeman's DNA on the weapon.
However, he later skipped bail and fled the country, leading to his mum being charged with assisting an offender.
Freeman, of Pennard Avenue, Huyton, would later claim the reason he headed to Spain was because he "panicked".
The fugitive was re-arrested on March 7, 2016, after flying back to John Lennon Airport, and admitted possessing a prohibited firearm and ammunition.
Frances Hertzog, defending Freeman, told the court he was from a "law abiding family" and regretted the offences, at a sentencing hearing in April 2016.
She said: "He accepts he was shown the gun, and he accepts he looked at it and handled it. He had no intention of doing anything with the gun and it was not to be used by him."
Ms Hertzog explained Freeman had been staying and working with a relative in Spain.
She said: "He spent the whole time looking over his shoulder, and he knew he could not stay forever.
"He then came back to face what he had to face."
The court heard the gun had not been linked to any crimes in the UK, but Judge Andrew Hatton said: "It was a working firearm capable of causing death."
Freeman was sentenced to three years and five months in a young offenders institution, but it did not deter him from further crime.
At the age of 21, he was caught by police with a lock knife in Hillside Road, Huyton, in August 2019.
Later that month, he was convicted of possessing a bladed article in public, and also for possessing cannabis - a charge that has repeatedly landed him in court.
However, he had not been convicted of anything anywhere near as serious as the shooting last year, when - for reasons still unknown - he targeted fellow crook Roberts.
CCTV footage showed the hooded "assassin" approaching the pub on an electric bike, with his hood up and wearing a mask and gloves, at around 8.20pm.
His botched attack then unfolded, when Roberts, from Huyton but now of Heyes Street, Everton, got the better of him and shot him at "point blank range".
Roberts - a convicted robber and the older brother of killer gun thug Michael Roberts - then fled with the weapon on Freeman's electric bike.
In the wake of the shooting, and having come off significantly worse than his target, Freeman stumbled away from the pub - still being kicked at by a local.
During the trial, David McLachlan, QC, prosecuting, explained Freeman made it to a house in Barkbeth Road, where a friend called him an ambulance.
Police arrived and took bodycam footage that showed Freeman with two bullet holes in his chest, blood pouring from his mouth, and a swollen and cut left eye.
The gunman was taken to Aintree hospital, where a CT scan revealed two bullets embedded in his chest that surgeons decided were too dangerous to remove - his reward for bringing deadly violence to a packed pub on the day lockdown ended.
Mr McLachlan told the jury: "The bullets were, and you will in fact hear are still inside him, to this day.
"One was lodged in his lung and another lodged near to his heart."
Freeman and Roberts will be sentenced on February 25.
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