A MAN accused of shooting a pensioner in a Sunderland pub was not in a bar elsewhere at the time, as he claimed, a court heard.

Robert Fox, 37, is accused of shooting Fred Fowler, 72, when he and Robert Chapman, 36, allegedly opened fire at the Tap and Barrel in Hendon, Sunderland, last July.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair had mistaken Michael Nixon, then 19, for Fox's long-standing rival Alan Miller. Mr Nixon was also shot in the head but survived.

Toby Hedworth, prosecuting, had told the court Fox had planned the attack following a long running feud with the Miller family. He had said: "These shootings were a hideously botched attempt to shoot someone else."

Fox claimed he had been drinking in Lloyd's Bar in Hartlepool on 18 July 2004, the date of the shootings.

But Helen Craggs, a bar supervisor at Lloyd's, said: "There were not many people in the pub that night. I knew them all by sight and I would have noticed if he was there."

Amy Tomlinson, a barmaid at Lloyd's, said a man had asked her the day after whether the security tapes from the pub were kept.

"It just seemed a very odd question to ask," she said. "I asked him why.

He said someone may come in to ask about them and I need to prove I was here on Sunday night."

Fox, of Redhouse, Sunderland, and Chapman, of Hartlepool, deny murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and firearms charges.

The trial continues.