A GUNSHOT was fired and clothes burnt at the home of a defendant, a court heard.

Grandmother Sheila Bergin claims she heard a “bang” at her Sible Hedingham home and the next morning she noticed a hole in the carpet on the stairs.

She was speaking from the witness box at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday about what she can remember from the night of February 5 and the morning of February 6, the day Timothy Mardon was shot and his home burgled.

She said: “I went to bed about 10.30pm. My husband woke me up saying something was going on next door.”

She told the court her grandson Christopher Bergin, his girlfriend and Charlie Simms were in the room in the early hours of the morning.

She said there was arguing and Mrs Bergin told Simms to leave with Christopher Bergin going outside with him.

The next morning, on February 6, Mrs Bergin woke and got up.

She said: "There was a hole in the carpet. I had heard a bang but I had ignored it.

"I did not realise it was in the house.

"Sometimes you get people around here shooting rabbits."

Mrs Bergin needs hearing aids for both ears and they were not in use because she had been in bed.

She told the court she did not realise the damage to her carpet was from a shot fired until the police came and told her.

She also told the court how later that morning Simms brought carpet to her home and someone fixed new carpet to her stairs.

And she claimed Simms had a black jacket at one point in the morning but went down the garden and when he returned there was smoke coming from the bottom of the garden and he came back without the jacket.

Mr Mardon’s house had been raided at about 4.30am on February 6 when he came across two male burglars and was shot in the leg and left for dead.

It is alleged Simms went armed with a gun and shot him and Christopher Bergin was in the house with him.

Charlie Simms, 23, of North Road, Great Yeldham, is on trial for attempted murder.

Simms, Kalebh Shreeve, 24, of Gibson Road, Sible Hedingham, and Christopher Bergin, 27, of Hawkwood Road, Halstead, are charged with aggravated burglary, wounding with intent, possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

All three deny all the charges.

The trial continues.