A gunman's "thirst for revenge" led him to plot a deadly attack on a gangland rival that left an innocent pensioner dead and a young man fighting for his life, a court was told yesterday.

Fred Fowler was enjoying a pint and chatting to friends when he was caught in the crossfire and killed instantly in the shooting at the Tap and Barrel, in Salem Street, Sunderland.

The 72-year-old retired coalminer was hit in the head and back by bullets fired by a masked gunman wielding a Second World War revolver.

His friend, Michael Nixon, a labourer, was shot in the head and suffered brain damage. Doctors at Newcastle General Hospital operated to remove a fragment of bullet from the 20-year-old's brain, which saved his life.

Both men were "in the wrong place at the wrong time", a jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Sally Howes QC, prosecuting, said the shootings, in July last year, were the result of second-hand car dealer Robert Fox's "thirst for revenge" against rival Sunderland gangsters called the Hendon Mad Dogs.

Mr Nixon had the misfortune to bear an uncanny likeness to Mr Fox's enemy Alan Miller, she said.

The court heard how Mr Fox, 37, of Harold Square, Hendon, and Robert Chapman, 36, of no fixed abode, from Hartlepool, pulled up outside the pub. Mr Fox was holding a sawn-off shotgun and Mr Chapman a vintage black British Army revolver. They had been driven to the pub by getaway driver Lee Hay, Mr Chapman's homosexual lover.

The jury was told Mr Fox leaned from the front passenger side window of the black Ford Focus, which had been stolen to order two days earlier from a building site compound in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, and fired a single shot through the pub window.

Customers then saw two men - said to be Mr Fox and Mr Chapman - one wearing a full-face gorilla mask, walk into the pub.

It was claimed that Mr Fox then stopped, looked calmly around the room then raised his shotgun to take aim at customers in the bar.

Chapman then lifted his pistol to head height and fired five times, it is alleged. Two bullets hit Mr Fowler. A third bullet hit Mr Nixon in the head. He had been talking to Mr Fowler at the bar.

The gunmen then fled. Forensics experts said the car interior was marked with firearms residue and with both Mr Chapman's and Mr Fox's fingerprints.

Mr Fox and Mr Chapman have each denied murder, the attempted murder of Michael Nixon, and a further charge of grievous bodily harm with intent on Michael Nixon.

Mr Fox denies further charges of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing a firearm without a firearm certificate, and a charge on March 10 of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. Mr Chapman denies charges of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possessing a firearm without a certificate.

The trial continues.