A HUSBAND and wife have been cleared of threatening a woman with a shotgun.

John Cowley, 43, and his wife Wendy, 50, were accused of pointing a shotgun at a wall and rattling a box of 24 shotgun cartridges in the face of Jenna Moore during a row, claiming that by the time police found them, there would only be 22 left.

A four-day trial at Oxford Crown Court heard that the couple’s home in Wessex Road, Didcot, was surrounded by armed police in December. John Cowley told the jury he never held the gun during the day of the siege. No ammunition was found, the court heard.

Yesterday, jurors took four hours to clear the couple of possessing a firearm with the intent of causing fear of violence.

Mr Cowley was also cleared of affray.