Marian Bates was shot in the chest

Marian Bates, 64, was killed as she made "an instinctive act of bravery by a mother trying to protect her daughter", the prosecution said.

The unnamed gunman then called her "a silly cow", Stafford Crown Court heard.

Peter Williams, 18, from Bestwood, who was not the gunman, denies murder and three other charges relating to the September 2003 raid in Arnold.

The identity of the gunman remains uncertain - there is some evidence that it was a man called James Brody Gregory Dickinson, QC

Three other people also deny charges relating to the September 2003 raid which netted the robbers a "pathetic" haul of two rings, one pendant and three pairs of earrings worth a total of �1,120.

Gregory Dickinson, QC, said: "Peter Williams was one of the robbers, one of the two who went into the store. He was not the man who pulled the trigger but he was a party to the murder.

"The identity of the gunman remains uncertain. There is some evidence that it was a man called James Brody but he has disappeared and cannot be found."

Act of bravery

He told the court how two raiders wearing crash helmets entered the Time Centre at about 1330 GMT on 30 September with the gunman threatening Mrs Bates' husband Victor. The couple's daughter Xanthe was also working in the shop.

Mr Dickinson said: "Xanthe's mother Marian Bates had been towards the back of the shop.

"It was at this stage that she moved forward very quickly, her arms outstretched, she was shouting out 'no'.

Victor Bates was injured in the attack

"She was clearly determined to put herself between the gunman and her daughter - an instinctive act of bravery by a mother trying to protect her daughter but it cost her life."

The gunman then aimed at Mr Bates and Xanthe but the gun misfired.

The prosecutor said Mr Williams was armed with a crowbar in the raid and used it to hit Victor Bates around the head as the shopkeeper advanced with a fencing sword.

Williams, of no fixed address, denies murder, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Bates, possessing a firearm with intent and conspiring to rob the Time Centre on Front Street.

Two other men, Craig Martin Moran, 22, of Bestwood, and Dean Robert Betton, 23, of Broxtowe, are both charged with conspiracy to rob the store.

Mr Moran and a fourth defendant, Lisa Unwin, 23, from Bestwood, face a further charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

All four defendants deny all charges.

The trial continues.