Pregnant woman 'shot in the head'

Krystal Hart was shot outside her home on Good Friday last year

A woman saw her boyfriend shoot her pregnant neighbour in the head after a dispute, a murder trial has heard.

Krystal Hart, 22, died after being shot twice at her home in Belleville Road, Battersea, south London, last April.

Neighbour Angie Brewer said Thomas Hughes shot Miss Hart from 2ft away. "She didn't have a chance," Miss Brewer told the Old Bailey.

Mr Hughes, 40, from Stonells Road, Battersea, denies murder and having a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Long-running dispute

Miss Hart had been involved in a long-running dispute with Miss Brewer at the time of the incident on 6 April 2007, jurors heard.

Mr Hughes parked his car in front of Miss Hart's home and became angry when Miss Hart's boyfriend David Siveter wrote down his car's number plate. Later he kicked at Miss Hart's door.

Miss Brewer said: "I saw (Mr Hughes) pull out a gun from the back of his trousers at the waist.

"He cocked it as he was taking it out. He kicked the door calling out 'come out'."

She had her hands to her head looking at me - I could not do anything Neighbour Angie Brewer

Miss Hart opened her door a few inches but Mr Hughes pushed it right back, Miss Brewer said.

"She stood there. She didn't have a chance. He pushed her down and he held the gun to her head," she added.

"He said, 'where is he?' She didn't have a chance to say anything. She had her hands to her head looking at me.

"I could not do anything. She was shot to her head."

'Adrenaline rush'

Miss Brewer said Mr Hughes "turned and looked at me and pointed the gun to my stomach".

She ran into her flat screaming and called the police.

Mr Hughes gave himself up to police two days after the shooting.

Miss Brewer told the court that she had phoned police half an hour before the shooting to "beg and implore" them to send a police car, but was told they were too busy.

Miss Brewer claimed Mr Hughes had shown her a gun on an earlier occasion, when he said he got "an adrenaline rush from shooting somebody".

"I thought he was bragging," she said.

Miss Brewer told the court that she did not realise Miss Hart was pregnant at the time of her death.

The trial continues.