A prisoner on the run climbed a church tower and took potshots at armed police after telling a friend he wanted to go out "all guns blazing", a court heard.

Christopher Maitland was shot in the leg by a police marksman as he aimed his pistol at armed officers from scaffolding around St Peter's Church in Brighton on Easter Saturday last year.

Police sharpshooter PC Ian Potter fired a single shot at the 21-year-old fugitive.

A bullet was later removed from the thigh bone of Maitland, who is now confined to a wheelchair.

Stephen Shay, prosecuting at Hove Crown Court yesterday, said Maitland was a serving prisoner who was not due to be released until May this year.

He was given a temporary release licence in March last year and was due to return to a young offenders' institute on March 25.

Instead, he met his friend Paul Andrew at a boatyard in Shoreham and told him he had completed his sentence.

The fugitive then went to stay with another friend, Geoffrey Foster-Brown, in Brighton, saying he had been given early parole.

Mr Shay said: "On April 1, Maitland phoned Mr Andrew and told him: 'I am not going back. They will have to kill me'.

"On April 9, he sent a text message to a girl called Naomi Barrow asking her to get him the number of a PC Kerr.

"In another text he told her: 'I am going to finish this chase permanently'.

"Naomi texted back asking him not to kill himself.

"He replied: 'Topping myself? I would not give anyone the satisfaction. It will be all guns blazing'.

"On April 17, he asked Naomi to meet him the following day to take him to the police station. He told her he wanted one last day of freedom."

Mr Shay said Maitland and his former girlfriend Karen Harris were at Mr Foster-Brown's flat just after midnight on April 18.

She heard him talking on the phone to a police sergeant before he ran from the flat with a gun in his hand.

During the conversation he had told the officer: "If the police want me they had better come armed to the teeth."

He gave details of crimes allegedly committed in Hampshire and Dorset and said he had a Browning automatic pistol and 175 rounds of ammunition.

Maitland said he was angry and depressed and would be at St Peter's Church but would not be handing himself in, the court heard.

Mr Shay said Sussex Police firearms unit was briefed at 1.30am on April 18.

Just over an hour later, PC Ian Potter and other officers went to the south-east side of St Peter's where they saw three people on the scaffolding.

Mr Shay said: "PC Potter told these people to get down and a man and a woman with Maitland did so.

"He stayed on the scaffolding and was down on his belly, smoking. He told the officer it was him he was looking for.

"The officer said: 'Armed police, stand up', which Maitland did.

"PC Potter told Maitland to put his arms out to the side and to not give him cause to shoot him.

"Maitland dropped down and hid behind a wooden footboard at the edge of the scaffolding.

"The officer saw Maitland point a silver gun in his direction and then appear to fire shots at him.

"He feared for his own life and that he was being fired on by a lethal weapon. He fired back once.

"Other officers at the scene identified themselves as armed police and ordered Maitland to put the weapon down.

"He replied he had been shot and was not coming down because there were marksmen there to shoot him. He began firing again."

Mr Shay said by then police suspected the pistol was either an airgun or a BB gun because the bullets had not ricocheted off anything.

It was later identified as a Walther CP88 .177 calibre air pistol which uses gas cartridges to fire pellets.

Mr Shay said firearms expert Liam Hendrickse had confirmed the weapon was capable of inflicting lethal injuries.

The jury was told Maitland, of Seamill Crescent, Worthing, had already pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

He denied two charges of having the gun with intent to avoid arrest and using it with intent to avoid arrest or lawful detention.

Maitland was brought to court in a people carrier and transferred in his wheelchair to the court.

His chair was too big to fit through the door of the dock in Court One so he sat at the back of the courtroom flanked by a male and a female security officer.

Smartly dressed in a grey suit, blue shirt and tie, he listened intently as Mr Shay outlined the case.

A white-haired man leaned over the glass partition in the public gallery above the court and said hello to Maitland.

He looked up from his wheelchair and smiled before returning the greeting and sharing a joke with the dock officers sitting next to him.

The trial continues.