Cops pay gunman

Stafford Freeborn, from The Strand in Goring, took legal action against Sussex Police for keeping items of his property after he was arrested and sent to prison for seven years in 1997.

His US passport, UK and US driving licences and scuba diving papers were among items never returned to him, along with a computer, cordless phone and transformer plug, which were returned months after his release, when they had already been replaced.

Mr Freeborn, pictured right, has always maintained he acted in self-defence the night he shot a man who was attacking his landlord.

On Monday he won half of his original 2,337 claim for damages.

The 59-year-old said: "As soon as I got out of prison I started asking for my things to be returned but I got nowhere. It was just me applying to the police to get my property back time after time but I just kept getting the run around."

Mr Freeborn is an American national who worked as a transport pilot and served with the United States Air Force Auxiliary. He had only been living in Brighton for a few months when he tried to break up a fight between his landlord and a man he had never met before.

He told the Herald he had owned a gun for around 20 years for protection after he was attacked by two men in America. He said he fired it that night because he feared for his life.

But a jury rejected Mr Freeborn's claims of self-defence at his trial and found him guilty of wounding with intent and using a gun to endanger life.

Mr Freeborn served a total of three years and seven months in Lewes Prison and Verne prison in Dorset.

"Those years in prison were just hell," he said. "I've been though hell but I am still here. People have often asked me if I regret shooting him, but I thought he was going to break my neck. "

District Judge Carlton Edwards said at Monday afternoon's hearing: "It is common ground that these items should have been returned as soon as the trial procedure was completed and the items were no longer required for evidential purposes."

Mr Freeborn believes there are many more items of his property which have not been returned to him and said he will fight on to get them back.