A JURY has retired to consider verdicts in the trial of a man accused of attempting to murder two police officers with a shotgun during a confrontation in a sleepy Somerset village.

Daniel Hannam, 33, denies two counts of attempting to murder the armed officers, known only as IC and IX, in Castle Cary, in the early hours of January 23.

He is alleged to have shot at IC and IX from an upstairs window at his former girlfriend's home in the market town, as they were at the front door.

Body-worn footage shows IC and IX returning fire before taking shelter behind an armed response vehicle parked near the end-of-terrace property.

Hannam, from Gillingham in Dorset, admits discharging the shotgun out of the window, but insists he was aiming into the air and not at police.

A jury of eight men and four women at Bristol Crown Court was sent to consider its verdicts in the case by Mr Justice Soole on Monday.

"You have the legal directions, you have the papers, you have heard the evidence and you have heard the speeches from counsel," the judge said.

"It is now your task to consider your verdicts."

Hannam told jurors that he had been "on the run" at the time of the incident, after being released from prison and breaching his licence conditions in August last year.

He said he had been arguing with his on-off girlfriend, who lived in Castle Cary, and went out with his shotgun at about 11pm on January 22, firing it into the air.

In the early hours of January 23, he shot at the door of a McColl's newsagent before getting into the car of Oliver Walter-Taylor, who he did not know, in a car park.

After a struggle with Mr Walter-Taylor, Hannam fired the shotgun into the air and returned to his former girlfriend's home on Park Street.

Officers later surrounded the property and shouted "armed police", with Hannam opening the upstairs window and firing the shotgun out of it.

Hannam later threw the shotgun out of a window at the back of the property and handed himself in to police.

He denies two counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Last week, he admitted attempting to kidnap Mr Walter-Taylor.

The trial continues.