A man murdered his ex-wife's new husband in an act of "revenge and retribution", a jury was told yesterday.

Forty-year-old Allan Kimber, of Stert Street, Abingdon, denies shooting Gary Morgan on October 17 last year.

Mr Morgan died yards from the home he shared with wife Helen on Danesbrook Farm, Stanton St John, after being shot in the neck by a killer "who had laid in wait for him", prosecutor Neil Moore said at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

He alleged Kimber, a bus driver, had told a girlfriend he wanted to "do Gary Morgan over" and claimed he had "higher contacts" who could help him achieve this.

The prosecution's case is that Kimber bought a deactivated Walther PPK pistol over the Internet and converted it to fire home-made bullets.

He had met Helen Morgan in May 2000 at the Stagecoach bus company where they both worked and the pair married the following summer.

But the jury heard how their marriage ended a year later when Mrs Morgan threw him out of their Bicester home, after she said she grew tired of his moods, jealousy and verbally aggressive behaviour.

She told the jury that a month later she took in a lodger, Mr Morgan, so that she could pay the mortgage. A few weeks after he moved in, the pair began a relationship.

They were soon engaged and married in January 2004.

Mr Moore said witnesses saw Kimber "sobbing his eyes out" at work in the days after Mrs Morgan ended their marriage and he was temporarily removed from his driving duties because he was so heartbroken.

Mr Moore said: "This jealous man Kimber continued to harbour these feelings of hatred towards Gary Morgan and he stewed in them until, on the morning of October 17, in an act of revenge and retribution, he executed his plan to kill him."

On the morning Mr Morgan died, he had just left home and was on his way to Warburton's Bakery in Bicester where he worked as a delivery driver.

He left home at about 3.15am, but never arrived to start his 4am shift.

The jury heard how he was found by his wife slumped in his car, which was in a ditch on the lane which ran from their cottage to the main road. The emergency services were called and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Moore told the jury how Kimber's Abingdon flat had been searched by police and a gun and ammunition had been found under his kitchen sink.

The court was later shown CCTV footage of Stert Street in Abingdon, which featured Kimber leaving his home shortly after 2am carrying a plastic bag, driving off in his Suzuki jeep and returning at 3.55am.

Mr Moore said Kimber went to his GP hours after the death with a serious eye injury. The prosecution alleges it was caused by firing the gun but Kimber said it was caused by cigarette ash being flicked into his eye.

The case continues.