The widow of Devizes solicitor Jim Ward has relived the events leading up to his shooting last July at the trial of Michael Chudley, the man accused of his murder.

Nicola Morris, who had been married to Mr Ward since 1985, was in her office at MGW Law in St Johns Street on the afternoon of July 2 last year when she became aware of a situation taking place in the foyer.

She told William Mousley QC prosecuting: “I heard the words, ‘If anyone uses the phone I’ll shoot them.’”

Looking up she saw a man with a shotgun standing behind receptionist Daphne Courtney. The eyes of the two women met and Ms Morris could see the terror in the eyes of her friend. She went into the foyer and made to follow them up the stairs.

Ms Morris said: “I knew I had to help them but I couldn’t use the phone because I heard him say he was going to shoot. I had to claw my way out of the office."

She ran into the art shop next door and screamed for the owner to call the police. Running back to the office she heard a gunshot and saw glass cascading into the street from the broken window.

She said Chudley walked out of the office holding the sawn-off shotgun.

"My first thought was to take the gun off him but then I realised it was not a good idea," the mother of three said.

"I thought of taking the number plate of his car but that filled me with horror and that I must not even look at the number plate.

"He went to the driver's door of the car and I went up the two steps to the office without him noticing me."

She rushed upstairs and found her husband slumped beside his desk with dreadful head injuries. She opened a window and screamed for help though the police were already on their way.

She told the court that several weeks earlier her husband had made a rule that no one was allowed to be alone on the front desk and the door was to be kept shut. She didn’t know if this was a direct result of threats from Chudley.

Receptionist Daphne Courtney told Mr Mousley of her terror when the man came through the door armed with a gun. "He was aggressive in the way he spoke. He just looked through me when he was speaking to me," she said.

"He said take me to Jim Ward. Take me to his office now. Don't speak to anybody or don't pick up the phone or I'll shoot.

"I was terrified of what he was going to do if I didn't do as he said. He said he would shoot."

Ms Courtney said that Chudley, who was dishevelled and had unwashed greasy hair and large glasses, did not identify himself to her but she knew it was him.

Asked to explain that comment, she told jurors: "He was the only one that I could think of because of the case we had going on at that time."

Ms Courtney said she went upstairs to the first floor where Mr Ward's office was.

"Jim was on the telephone, he was laughing," she said.

She said she moved to her right and Chudley took about two steps into Mr Ward's office and opened fire.

"He raised his right arm to shoulder level and pulled the trigger," she said.

Ms Courtney said that Chudley did not do anything to the shotgun, such as removing the safety catch, before firing.

Mr Mousley asked Ms Courtney about Chudley's demeanour at the time.

She replied: "He was a man on a mission."

The trial, before Mr Justice Bean, was adjourned until tomorrow.