A man who was sitting with his parents and brother in their caravan at a Suffolk Travellers site when three men wearing balaclavas allegedly burst in and held a gun to his father’s head has told a court he feared they were going to be shot.

Bernard McDonagh junior told a jury at Ipswich Crown Court that his family had been watching television at around midnight when the men entered the caravan through an unlocked door.

“They were wearing dark clothing and had balaclavas on. I was in shock and couldn’t move. I was terrified,” he said.

“I was worried we were going to get shot,” he added.

He said that one of the men held a gun to his father’s head while another held up a mobile phone which had a man he recognised as his cousin Christopher Mongan on a video call.

He claimed that Mongan told his father Bernard McDonagh senior that he and his six sons would be shot if they didn’t “drop the charges” relating to a shooting ten days earlier at the Red Lodge Travellers’ site where they lived.

Bernard McDonagh junior said he was “100% sure” that the person making the threat in the video call was his cousin Christopher Mongan.

He denied a suggestion from defence counsel Nick Murphy that he’d made up the allegation against Mongan in retaliation for a car belonging to his family being set alight.

Mongan, of Wilslow Road, Milton Keynes has denied an offence of intimidation.

Giving evidence he denied making the video call in which the threat to shoot Bernard McDonagh senior and his sons was made.

The court has heard that on April 4 last year there was an incident at the Red Lodge site during which at least eight people turned up and shot and wounded two teenagers.

Among that group were Christopher Mongan’s brothers David and Bernard Mongan and their cousin Jim Mongan and after the incident Bernard McDonagh senior and his wife Theresa identified them to the police as being part of the group.

However, six weeks later they are told police they were mistaken and that they no longer supported the prosecution.

Despite this the case against David, Jim and Bernard Mongan continued and in October last year they admitted violent disorder at the Red Lodge site on April 4 last year.

In September last year Bernard McDonagh and other members of his family told police that they had been threatened by Christopher Mongan and he was arrested.

His trial continues.