A SHOOTING victim left paralysed by a mystery gunman during a pub fight has described 'the most frightening experience in my life' to a court.

Father-of-two, Paul Crook, from Castlefields, Runcorn, is unlikely to ever walk again after being shot in the back, Warrington crown court heard last week.

"I heard a bang and felt excruciating pain in my back," the 44-year-old said. "I was in agony and I couldn't feel my legs at all. It was like they were blocks of concrete.

"I thought I was about to die."

The man accused of starting the trouble, which led to the shooting, Alan George Edwards, 35, from St Hilda's Drive, Frodsham, walked free from court after Judge Merfyn Hughes said prosecution evidence was too unreliable.

Mr Edwards pleaded not guilty to charges of violent disorder and affray after being arrested in March in connection with the fight outside the Tanners pub in Castlefields, Runcorn.

The prosecution alleged that Mr Edwards assaulted Paul Crook after Jane Crook, his wife, shouted at him and a friend for urinating against a nearby wall.

The court heard that the day before the shooting, which happened just after midnight on February 13, 2004, the Crooks had attended a friend's funeral before starting drinking at around 4.30pm.

A group of 'strangers' were seen drinking in the Tanners pub later on but Mr Edwards told police he had left at 10pm, although the court heard he did not tell them where he was or who he was with at the time of the shooting.

Mrs Crook later picked out Mr Edwards in an identity parade as the man who punched her husband to the floor.

But in two earlier parades she had wrongly identified two volunteers as the other suspects in the incident.

Defending, Mr Bagley said: "You (Mrs Crook) are minimising how much you had to drink to maximise your reliability as a witness.

"You had been drinking all afternoon and had been to a funeral and that does not put you in the best condition to take in what was happening."

Mrs Crook said her head had 'been in a whirl' when making her original statement.

Mr Bagley said she had picked out Mr Edwards in the identity parade because he was among a group of strangers seen in the Tanners pub earlier that night.

But Mrs Crook denied being drunk and told the court she hadn't noticed anyone she didn't recognise because she hadn't once looked around the bar during the six hours she was there.

Prosecuting, Steven Everett, had told the jury: "The man who shot Paul Crook has never been found.

"The real issue here is whether Mr Edwards was one of those three men."

But summing up, Judge Merfyn Hughes, said: "Genuine witnesses can make genuine mistakes in identifying someone they think was the offender.

"There is insufficient reliable evidence to go to the jury.

"It would be unjust to allow this case to go any further," he added, before discharging the jury and ruling not guilty.