YORK police have appealed to the travelling community not to take the law into its own hands after two of its members were acquitted of attempted murder.

Karl and Anthony Gaskin and John Robert Hooton hugged each other in the dock with relief and their families cried and shouted their joy when the jury at York Crown Court returned their verdicts.

During the nine-day trial, members of the James family alleged Karl Gaskin, 29, was the gunman who nearly killed Robert James when Mr Hooton, 56, shouted "shoot them, shoot them", and Anthony Gaskin, 30, threatened Teresa James and Peter James with a shotgun.

The jury unanimously acquitted all three defendants in four hours at an unusual Saturday sitting.

"Justice has been done fairly," said Karl Gaskin, who lives on the James Street Caravan Site. "I trust the justice of the jury - no-one else - oh, and everyone involved in the defence."

DCI Steve Barlow, who headed the police investigation, expressed bitter disappointment at the result.

"We ask them (the travellers) not to take justice into their own hands," he said.

In a moment of high drama during the trial, Robert James pointed at Karl Gaskin, saying: "It is that man there who shot me, there is no doubt."

But Judge Paul Hoffman, after objections from Paul Worsley QC, for Karl Gaskin, told the jury to disregard the pointing.

He said Robert James could deduce that Karl Gaskin was alleged to be the unknown gunman who shot him because he knew the other two in the dock.

In hospital, he had described his assailant as having "dirty blond hair". Karl Gaskin has dark hair.

All three defendants spoke of the stress and strain they and their families had suffered since their arrest last May.

At times, they doubted they would be acquitted. Anthony Gaskin, of Diamond Street, The Groves, spent two-and-a-half months in prison on remand and his cousin, Karl, three-and-a-half months before getting bail.

The three men thanked jurors individually as the 11 women and one man left the court building, then they went off to celebrate.

"I don't know where yet," said Anthony Gaskin. "I can't stop shaking at the moment."

The court heard that the James family broke the travellers' code of non co-operation with police when they contacted detectives two days after the shooting instead of using their community's internal justice system.

The defendants alleged in court that their accusers used the two days to concoct their story.

Karl Gaskin and Mr Hooton, of Thistle Hill Caravan Park, Knaresborough, were acquitted of attempted murder, Anthony Gaskin of two charges of possessing a firearm with intent to cause another to fear unlawful violence, and Mr Hooton of hiding a shotgun with intent to impede the arrest of the Gaskins.

The judge exempted all the jurors from jury service for five years because it had been a difficult case.

Updated: 11:00 Monday, November 19, 2001