A POSTMISTRESS, whose son was gunned down when her family post office was raided by armed robbers, broke down in tears as she described finding her son pouring with blood, at the trial of four men accused of the murder of Craig Hodson-Walker.

Judith Hodson-Walker described the moments she heard her son crying out in pain after he had been fatally shot in the chest on January 9, when protecting his dad from the three masked men.

The robbers, who were armed with a gun and sledgehammer, shot Craig, 29, before turning the gun on his dad Ken who was shot in the leg but survived.

The 56-year-old sub postmistress of the family’s post office and general store in Fairfield, said she 'stupidly' thought it was a fake gun because when it fired it sounded like a whip.

She told the jury: "I did not see it but I heard him call out. I stupidly didn't believe it was a real gun.

"I heard him call out and I knew he was calling out in pain and that is the very last thing I heard him say.

"I ran to Craig in the corner. I could see Ken on the floor. He could not move and he said 'he has gone'.

"I said 'he can't be gone', he is my son."

Mrs Hodson-Walker broke down in tears as she told the jury of her desperate attempts to revive Craig when she began CPR.

"I picked him up towards me and suddenly all this blood was all over the floor and underneath him."

The jury were told that she tried to fend off the robbers with a curtain pole.

She added: "I remember thinking they are hurting my family, they are hurting me, and I have got to do something.

"I don't know what I thought I could do, they are hurting my family, my business and me. What can I do?"

She was struck on the shoulder by the robber with the sledgehammer moments before she attempted to dial 999.

The court heard Mrs Hodson-Walker was upstairs in her home when she heard her husband shouting, and a woman screaming in the shop.

She described the scream as the 'sort when you know something was wrong'.

She shouted to Craig and the pair dashed downstairs but heroic Craig held his mother back and entered the shop first armed with a cricket back.

Jurors were told that Craig confronted the gunman and started hitting him with the bat as he yelled 'give me the money, give me the money'.

Mrs Hodson-Walker said: "I think he saw what was happening to his dad and obviously he wanted to help.”

She described the sledgehammer wielding robber as 'very violent', as he started smashing up the till in the shop.

She said he picked it up and yanked the till with both hands before smashing it up on the floor.

"It was so destructive," she said.

"I couldn't not believe what he was doing. That image had been with me since that day very much so, I remember it vividly, I will never forget that image."

The prosecution read out a statement made by Mr Hodson-Walker to the court during the sixth day of the trial.

Mr Hodson-Walker said he felt 'hopeless' as the robbers yelled at him to open the safe, which was on a time lock.

The raiders pulled shelving from the shop on to him as he lay on the floor after he had been shot and stamped on him with him underneath.

The statement read: "I thought they were trying to kill me, I am sure of that. I did not hear the shot fire, I didn't feel the pain for around 15 seconds and then it suddenly came, they were trying to keep me down and they did.

"I pulled myself from underneath the shelving. I could not get up and I was bleeding all over the place.

"I pulled myself along to see if I could help my son but I knew I couldn't. He was gone. I dragged myself over and touched him but he was already gone."

Mr Hodson-Walker sobbed in court and was taken out of the public gallery as the statement was read out.

A woman who was in the post office at the time of the raid said she was 'petrified' of the men, who wore balaclavas and described it as a 'surreal' ordeal.

In a statement read to the court, Samantha Williams said: "They did not sound angry when they spoke. They just sounded assertive. They had gone in there to do a job and knew exactly what they wanted and what they were going for."

Anselm Ribera, 34, Adrian Snape, 25, and brothers Christopher Morrissey, 32, and Declan Morrissey, 33, all deny murder, attempted murder, and possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Ribera and the Morrissey brothers also deny attempted robbery - a charge which Snape admitted at an earlier hearing.

Declan Morrisey and Christopher Morrisey both deny a separate count of robbery relating to stealing the getaway car on December 31, 2008.

The trial at Birmingham Crown Court continues.