A JURY has been hearing how a neighbour heard the sound of gunfire near where a policewoman from Ormskirk was gunned down during an armed robbery.

Preston Crown Court has heard that dog handler Katie Johnson,29, from Ormskirk, was shot on New Year's Eve 2007 at the Hospital Inn, Bamber Bridge.

Evidence has been given whoch showed she was lucky not to have been killed, and she had feared she would lose her leg.

Two men Wayne McDonald (47) of Didsbury, Manchester, and David Tyrell (39) of Tyldesley, near Wigan, are alleged by the crown to have been the gunman who robbed the pub of £12,000.

The prosecution say they were helped in planning the raid by Rudolf Mancini (55) of Division Lane, Great Marton, Blackpool, and the pub's chef Peter Plaskowski (28) of Dean Street, Bamber Bridge.

Local resident Mildred Clement told the jury that she heard the sound of a gun and when she looked from her window she saw two men crossing the road entering a neighbours garden.

She said: "I heard one say ‘Keep going, just keep going’.

She added that they then went out of her sight. The one man she could see more clearly was wearing a dark coloured balaclava.

The jury has heard a recording of PC Johnson shouting that she had been shot.

A colleague PC Rob Mathews who was outside the pub said: "I heard Katie Johnson saying ‘stop, police’.

"Then there was a loud bang. PC Johnson went to the floor screaming that she had been shot."

The officer had 12 pellet wounds in her left thigh and said she was in excruciating pain.

McDonald and Tyrell 39, deny the attempted murder of PC Johnson and. wounding her with intent to resist arrest.

McDonald pleads not guilty to possession of firearms with intent to commit an offence.

Tyrell has admitted robbery and the firearms offence.

McDonald , Mancini and Plaskowski all deny robbery .