Man accused of shooting bridegroom on wedding day bites detective on the nose as he flees court

Jason McInerney - who is accused of shooting a bridegroom at a wedding reception - was on the run last night after the breakout.

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He escaped after asking an official for a glass or water. As the ceiling-high reinforced glass door of the dock was opened, he and his two co-defendants forced their way out.

Detective Constable Mark Rudman joined the scuffle, only to have his nose bitten and broken.

Prosecutor Ian Hope threw off his wig and gown and set off in pursuit of McInerney, but was tripped up in a corridor by a man thought to be among a gang of accomplices who had arrived to help with the pre-planned breakout.

Although McInerney escaped, his brother Kurt and Martin Carty, the two other defendants on attempted murder charges, were caught by police and security guards before they could reach the exit at Reading Crown Court.

The trial had only recently been moved from a courtroom with a higher level of security.

Last night police warned the public not to approach McInerney as they continued to search for him.

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CCTV footage from the court's security cameras was being examined in an attempt to identify those who helped the defendants.

One source revealed that a group of around five young men - who all left with McInerney - had been sitting in the public gallery during the trial and aroused the suspicion of court staff.

McInerney, of Romford, Essex, is from Britain's travelling community, with contacts across the country.

His parents' home, in Blaxston, near Doncaster, was alleged to be where McInerney, his brother and Carty, 18, set off from before the shooting at the Skyways hotel in Slough in November 2006.

They were accused of attempting to murder Joseph Mitchell by shooting him in the groin during his wedding reception.

They also deny robbery, relating to the beating of a man whose high-powered VWGolfR32 they allegedly stole to use as a getaway car.

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Mr Mitchell gave evidence against them at the start of the trial, which had been moved from the high-security Court Six, where it had been held for the past three weeks to the lower security Court Two, to make way for a murder trial.

A witness-said it was no coincidence that the breakout took place on a day when armed police, normally stationed outside the courthouse in connection with the murder trial, were not present because that trial was not sitting.

DC Rudman was treated by paramedics before being taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

The trial was adjourned.