A man who was targeted in a shooting incident told the Supreme Court that he was later urged to change his testimony to protect a defendant.

Prosecutors have alleged that three men — Devon Hewey, Dujon Reid-Anderson and Kamel Worrell — conspired to pervert the course of justice by persuading Levon Thomas to lie under oath.

The Crown has claimed Mr Thomas was offered money and left threatening messages in the lead-up to a trial in which Mr Hewey was a defendant.

Mr Thomas reportedly told the court in that trial that, while he could not identify the men involved in the shooting, he knew Mr Hewey and would have recognised him if he were a suspect.

However, he yesterday testified that he first saw Mr Hewey in January 2014 during an earlier trial for the same shooting.

Speaking from the witness box, Mr Thomas said that on March 4, 2012, he was leaving Shine’s Nightclub when he noticed a motorcycle with two passengers travelling westward in the middle lane.

“They were moving slowly. No more than 5mph,” he said. “I looked at them and kept walking. That’s when I looked at the gentleman and I saw a metal object in the passenger’s pocket.

“At that time I was still making my way across the street. The passenger tried to take the object out of his pocket and that’s when I realised that it was a weapon. A handgun.”

Mr Thomas testified that the passenger pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun failed to fire. As he attempted to flee, running across the street, he said the gunman fired two shots into a crowd of people outside the club.

The rider then turned the vehicle around and the passenger fired two shots at Mr Thomas, who escaped by running down a stairwell to Front Street. He later went to police, giving them a statement about the shooting.

He told the court that while he did not testify in an initial trial, which took place in September 2013, he did take the stand in January 2014 when the matter returned to the courts. That trial ended in a mistrial, and a new trial date was set to take place that September.

Mr Thomas testified that he met Mr Reid-Anderson through a mutual friend about a year and a half before the January trial and the defendant became like a big brother to him. He said he also became aware that Mr Reid-Anderson had a relationship with Mr Hewey. He told the court that in May of 2014, Mr Reid Anderson began to speak with him about the trial and his police statement.

“It was a call for help,” the witness said. “He wanted to help [Mr Hewey] to get off the case. Around that time, in May or June, I was handed a statement by Mr Reid-Anderson. When I looked at it I immediately recognised that it was my statement that I made to police. The statement was highlighted in different areas where we can change it up a little bit and there were also side notes.”

He said that he took the statement, along with the side notes which were on separate yellow pieces of paper, and put them away in a drawer.

Mr Thomas also told the court that Mr Reid-Anderson asked him if he could share his contact information with Mr Hewey. He said yes, and later that day he received a phone call from Mr Hewey and had a “comfortable conversation” about making changes to his police statement. In total, he said he was called by Mr Hewey on about four occasions between June and September, when the retrial took place.

Asked when he first met Mr Hewey, Mr Thomson said: “The first time I saw Mr Hewey was the trial in January 2014.”

He also recalled that there was a period that summer when he had returned to work and Mr Reid-Anderson had a hard time getting in contact with him. He said the defendant left him a pair of voice notes.

“When I heard the first voice note, I couldn’t believe that came from some one I really looked up to. I felt betrayed. I felt disrespected.”

After receiving the message, he said he no longer felt comfortable around the defendant and began to tell other people whenever he planned to meet with him.

He later gave both the highlighted statement and copies of the voice notes police.

The trial continues.