Three men accused of attempted murder each claimed different versions of what happened on the day that a man was shot in the back, a court has heard.

Gavin Smale, aged 43, of Fore Street, Redruth, Paul Amoah, aged 38, of No Fixed Abode, Camborne and Lee Mitchell, aged 28, of Tresaderns Road, Redruth are currently on trial at Truro Crown Court charged under joint enterprise with one count of attempted murder, two counts of wounding with intent, one count of unlawful wounding and one count of aggravated burglary with weapons.

They have denied all charges.

The trial follows an incident last year when three men are alleged to have broken into a property in Drump Road, Redruth and shot one man in the back and attacked another with a hammer.

The court heard that following the attack on July 6 last year all three men allegedly fled the scene in a blue Mini, Amoah had borrowed from a friend.

It is alleged that Amoah fired the Beretta pistol that nearly killed Yarislav Divorkis while Mitchell allegedly hit Terry Madden five times on the head with a hammer. He was not seriously injured but Divorkis nearly died.

Following the attack both victims identified Smale as one of the attackers as he was allegedly the only one not to have been wearing a balaclava whilst he waited outside the back door.

Police first went that night to where Smale lived in a caravan in the car park of the Red Lion pub in Redruth but he wasn’t there so they then went to an address in Harmony Close, Redruth.

The court was told when they arrived Smale was seen to run out the back of the house and across several gardens, all the time being watched by a police drone and he was tracked and arrested.

A second man who turned out to be Amoah was also seen leaving the house and was seen to enter another property in Cardrew Road which contained flats. Armed police cleared all the flats before coming to the final one where initially the woman inside wouldn’t let them in. When she relented police found Amoah hiding under a sofa. Mitchell was arrested the next day on a nearby street.

All three men gave conflicting reports of what had actually happened on that day.

Amoah told police he was in the blue Mini but he only drove Smale and Mitchell to the address. He said Smale went inside to buy cannabis while he and Mitchell waited in the car and they knew nothing about what happened in the house, and said it must have been Smale that did it.

Mitchell accepted he was in the blue Mini as a passenger but he said he stayed in the car while Amoah and Smale went in to buy cannabis.

Smale told police that all three went to the property but he didn’t realise the other two were armed.

Prosecutor Gregory Gordon told the jury that CCTV proved all three men had entered the property.

When police searched the Harmony Close address belonging to a woman who Amoah had borrowed the Mini off, they found a Beretta handgun wrapped in a pink cloth, put inside a baseball cap and placed inside a basket with children's toys in an alcove.

Amoah's DNA was found on the gun and the cloth. A hammer left behind at the scene had Mr Madden's blood on it and Mitchell's DNA.

Mr Gavorskis' passport, with the photo ID page ripped out, was found in the drawer of the TV table in the lounge of Amoah's address.

The trial continues.