A JUDGE has jailed a 31-year-old man after he retracted a witness statement he made following a shooting incident that happened in Bradford last year.

Judge David Hatton QC told Mohammed Raheel Munir that “two dangerous men” had escaped justice as a result of his actions.

“The perversion of justice for which you were responsible is a very serious matter undermining as it does the entire system of criminal justice,” the judge said.

Munir, of Abingdon Street, Manningham, Bradford, had been due to stand trial at Bradford Crown Court today.

But he pleaded guilty to the perverting the course of justice charge.

Judge Hatton said a series of very serious incidents took place in broad daylight on September 1 last year.

It is understood that a shotgun had been fired towards another group of men in the Laisteridge Lane area of the city at about 6.30pm.

“You were a witness to those incidents and indeed a potential victim of the use of the firearm,” the judge told Munir.

Munir gave a statement to police in which he implicated two men, the court heard.

He later picked one of them out during identification procedures.

“As a result those two men were arrested, charged and were to stand trial in this court earlier this year,” said Judge Hatton.

“You subsequently retracted your statements indicating that those two men were innocent.

“As a result of that retraction of your evidence, those two dangerous men escaped justice and the effect of your retraction was that the Crown could not proceed to bring them to justice.”

Munir admitted the offence on the basis that his retraction statement was false.

However, Judge Hatton said only a prison sentence was appropriate in the circumstances.

He said Munir would have been jailed for six years after a trial.

But his guilty plea meant the sentence could be reduced.

Subsequently, Munir was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Following the incident, a police cordon remained in place on Laisteridge Lane while officers investigated. At the time, police linked the Laisteridge Lane incident to an earlier incident in Shearbridge Road and the later discovery of a burned out car on Priestman Street, Manningham.