A GUNMAN who shot two people in Huddersfield will face many years behind bars.

Shaun Alexander was given the stark warning by a judge when he admitted the offence after a last-minute change of plea at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

The 20-year-old injured two people when he fired a handgun that had been reactivated.

Alexander fired the 9mm Beretta pistol on Northumberland Street on December 20 last year, hitting 47-year-old Barbara Duggan in her lower leg and 22-year-old Stephen Asquith in his right shin.

Alexander, of Waterloo Rise, Waterloo, had been due to stand trial at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

But instead he admitted two offences of unlawful wounding and possessing a reactivated 9mm Beretta pistol and ammunition with intent to cause fear of violence.

A second man, 22-year-old Lee Joyce, formerly of Foxlow Avenue, Rawthorpe, admitted offences of common assault and affray arising out of the same incident.

The shooting happened after Mrs Duggan intervened in a violent clash and attempted to break up an altercation between Alexander and Mr Asquith as she waited for a takeaway.

But both she and Mr Asquith were shot as the gunman took aim.

Prosecutor Andrew Kershaw told the court that although it initially appeared have been a double shooting, further scientific inquiries had indicated that only one shot had been fired.

The court heard that Mr Asquith was apparently hit in the shin after the bullet ricocheted off the ground while Mrs Duggan appeared to have been struck by a splinter from the original bullet.

Mr Kershaw said the case appeared to be one of ‘bravado’ and the discharging of the weapon in the direction of Mr Asquith was a ‘‘highly dangerous thing to do.’’

Mr Asquith had been on a Christmas night out and at the time police revealed that he and Alexander had clashed a little earlier in Cross Church Street when the victim was punched in the face.

That incident broke up and it was pure chance that both men met up again in Northumberland Street.

Alexander was remanded back into custody and Joyce was granted bail until their sentence hearing on December 15.

Judge Peter Benson told Alexander that a lengthy custodial sentence was inevitable in his case.