FEISTY pensioner Harold Wright may have sent a brutal murderer packing when he tangled with a man in his front garden.

The 76-year-old was shot in the arm during the fracas, which happened in August last year, at his home in Rolls Crescent, Hulme.

Mr Wright has always refused to talk to police about the incident, in which he slashed at his attackers with a kitchen knife.

Yardie gangster Courtney Palmer, 23, began a life sentence last month after he was found guilty at the Old Bailey of the torture and execution of a rival crime "Don" and his lieutenant.

One of the victims, Ainsley Barrington, 34 - the nephew of reggae legend, Desmond Dekker who had a hit with "The Israelites" - was know to be heavily involved in crime in Jamaica.

But he had moved to England and married a solicitor in July 2001.

Both Barrington and his "lieutenant" Leroy McKain, 21, were bound, gagged and hooded at a house being used as an estate agent's office, before being stabbed repeatedly in the chest with a two-pronged knife and shot in the head at close range in June 2002 in London.

Today police said they now suspect Palmer was involved in the Hulme incident which left Mr Wright with gunshot wounds.

The attackers fled leaving a trail of blood and two baseball caps behind them.

Greater Manchester Police say a decision to charge Palmer in relation to the shooting would have to be taken by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Cannabis

Mr Wright made a good recovery after the shooting, but was arrested himself after police found more than 2.8kg of cannabis, worth in excess of £2,000, in a trailer he kept in the front garden of his home.

The pensioner, who said he had been smoking cannabis since 1945, later admitted supplying the drug but said it was on a not-for-profit basis to his friends.

Judge Martin Steiger QC at Manchester Crown Court ruled Wright had been dealing for money from the same van he also admitted using to sell sweets to children.

He was given a seven months jail sentence, suspended for two months.

At the Old Bailey trial, which finished last month, Palmer of New Cross, London was convicted of two counts of murder after a record 17 days of deliberation by the jury who had heard 57 days worth of evidence from 80 witnesses.

Palmer's co-accused, estate agent Glen O'Brien, 34, of Raul Road, Peckham and friend Linval Edwards, 30, of no fixed address were cleared of murder and convicted of manslaughter in relation to both victims.

nicola.dowling@men-news.co.uk

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