A GUNMAN who opened fire at innocent revellers outside a nightclub has finally been brought to justice more than 10 years after he committed the crime —thanks to advances in forensic science.

Wayne McDonald, aged 49, was yesterday found guilty of attempting to murder two innocent men after he shot them outside the Atlantis nightclub on Eagley Brook Way, Astley Bridge in November, 2000.

Manchester Crown Court heard McDonald arrived at the club with “an arsenal”

in the boot of his silver BMW. After his friends were involved in a fight outside Atlantis, McDonald loaded one of the guns in his boot before he strode purposefully back toward the crowd with his arm outstretched and fired eight shots.

The jury took a day-anda- half to find him guilty of two counts of attempted murder, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing a firearm and possessing ammunition.

Bryan Kemp and Lee Howarth were both injured in the shooting — neither was involved in the fight.

Det Sgt Mike Gladwin, one of the investigating officers, said: “I’m very pleased with the result, more so for the two victims, Lee and Brian.

“They have had to wait an awful long time for this justice and I am sure it will be great comfort to them, as well as the general public, given that McDonald will be in prison, now well into his senior years.

“He is obviously a very dangerous man, who is prepared not only to carry firearms, but also to use them.”

Police had long suspected that McDonald was the gunman, but it took a lengthy investigation using state-of-the-art forensic science to prove it.

Dozens of witness saw the shooting, but no one was able to give a definite identification of McDonald as the gunman, even though he broadly matched all the descriptions given.

The case hinged on linking McDonald to a silver BMWfrom which he fetched the gun used in the shooting.

Witnesses described seeing the fight outside the Atlantis after it closed, then hearing someone saying: “It’s all right, I’ve got it sorted, it’s in my boot”, and “let’s one-time him”.

They then saw a man walk to the BMW, which was parked in the nearby car park, open the boot and rummage around.

Moments later, the man walked “purposefully”

towards the crowd of revellers and opened fire “indiscriminately” before fleeing on foot with his associate, Nasar Ahmed.

McDonald had bungled his escape by accidentally locking the car keys in the boot, and Ahmed was arrested less than an hour later as he returned to the car with a spare set of keys.

Police searched the car and found another gun, a Czechoslovakian Ceska 7.62mm pistol wrapped in a sock, but the gun used in the shooting was never found.

They also found a box of 100 bullets — with eight missing.

Police were able to prove eight shots were fired outside the club because they recovered eight shell casings from the scene — and they matched the box in the boot.

Crucially, they also found an Asda carrier bag in the boot of the car.

Inside the bag were three more carrier bags.

Two of themwere empty, but one contained a tissue.

In 2000, forensic experts tasked with analysing the tissue said there was not enough material on it to conclude anything useful.

But the samples were stored in a secure freezer in case they should ever become useful in the future. They did.

After McDonald, formerly of Darwen, was arrested in 2007 following an unconnected robbery at a pub near Preston in which he shot a police officer on New Year’s Eve at The Hospital Inn in Bamber Bridge.

Police reopened the Atlantis shooting case and began going over old evidence.

In 2008, they returned to the tissue and, using new technology and techniques developed since the shooting in 2000, found DNA matching McDonald.

The court heard the chance of there being a coincidental DNA match was one in a thousand million.

McDonald claimed the police had planted his DNA on the tissue in what his defence lawyer called “an old-fashioned fitting up”, just like Gene Hunt in the TV series Life on Mars, but his claim was dismissed by the jury.

Further evidence linking McDonald to the car was found by detectives, who investigated telephone records from the BMW’s built-in car phone.

Every number called on the phone could be connected to McDonald — the list included calls to his solicitor, his exgirlfriend and one of his friends.

The motive for the shooting was never clear, but police believe it was linked to the fight outside the club.

McDonald had entered the club shortly after midnight and was seen on CCTV leaving at about 2.18am with two men — Ahmed and a man known only as Anwar.

The fight took place near a sports car that had pulled up outside the club.

The court was told Anwar drove away in the sports car, but Ahmed stayed behind.

The shooting victims had no connection to the fight and were simply enjoying a night out with friends when they were blasted in the hands and abdomen.

Det Sgt Gladwin said: “It started out as a simple fight outside a nightclub, which McDonald clearly got himself involved in and took exception to. It’s more by luck than design that more people did not get seriously injured.”

Ahmed, then aged 28, from Farnworth, was jailed for two years at Manchester Crown Court in October, 2001 for possession of a firearm and assisting an offender.

McDonald will be sentenced tomorrow.