A HORSE dealer told a jury he fled for his life when he heard gunfire on a York caravan site.

The prosecution in the James Street shooting trial allege Karl Gaskin was the gunman who shot Robert James on May 10.

But giving evidence in his own defence, Gaskin alleged that members of the James family came onto the site armed with guns, machetes and baseball bats and he saw a gun in the hands of Mr James' cousin Peter.

"I heard a bang. It sounded like a gunshot," he said at York Crown Court.

"I turned and ran back round the caravan at the back and went over the wall."

The wall was at least six feet high.

"I was frightened by what I saw. I didn't want the same to happen to me. I could heard people saying 'Kill'."

Gaskin, caught on CCTV at a garage about half a mile from the site shortly after the shooting, said he bought some pop and cigarettes and took a taxi to a Clifton caravan site from where a friend took him to his father's home near Goole.

He stayed there and later went to police after police called seeking him when he was not in.

Both he and his wife Soroya Gaskin denied that he had ever owned or kept a gun or cartridges.

Gaskin, 29, then of James Street Caravan Site, and John Robert Hooton, 56, then of Thistle Hill Caravan Site, Knaresborough deny attempted murder.

Gaskin's cousin Anthony, 30, then of Diamond Street, The Groves, denies two charges of possessing a shotgun with intent to make others fear unlawful violence and Hooton denies concealing a shotgun with intent to impede the Gaskins' arrest.

Members of the James family have denied carrying any weapons.

Father-of-two Gaskin said he had been in prison in the past when he had been in trouble with the police but had never been convicted of anything as serious as attempted murder.

He said he was lying peacefully on his bed in his caravan when he heard a commotion, got his children indoors and went out to see about 15 men including members of the James family.

He alleged he had heard Peter James and others in a York pub earlier phoning for "lads" to join them. Earlier, the jury heard he told police the James group had said: "We are going to kill him" after a fight between Peter James and Anthony Gaskin.

The trial continues.

Updated: 08:33 Wednesday, November 14, 2001