A man who sent "flirtatious" messages to his victim's wife after shooting him in the legs on his own doorstop has been jailed.

Firad Muhammed went to a home in Bromley and when the victim – a 32-year-old man – answered the door, he fired two shots from a handgun and fled the scene.

The attack occurred on October 20 2020 in Chingley Close.

With no obvious motive for the shooting, Met detectives Ben Briselden and Imran Hansraj carried out extensive phone analysis.

They found incriminating Facebook messages between Muhammed and the victim's wife.

The messages, many of which were flirtatious or romantic in nature, included some that revealed Muhammed expressing regret that he had come to the victim's home address to shoot him and stating he should have done it in a different location in Bromley.

The 28-year-old, of Ellison Gardens, Ealing, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Muhammed was sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment at Inner London Crown Court last Friday after being found guilty of both offences during a trial in July.

He must serve at least two-thirds of his sentence in jail.

Detective Constable Ben Briselden said: "Muhammed travelled to the victim's home address with the intention to kill him.

"When we started the investigation, there were no leads and we had to build the case through detailed mobile phone analysis.

"This could easily have been a murder investigation and I hope the sentence allows the victim, who has now made a full recovery, to move on with his life in the knowledge Muhammed is not going to be out of prison for a very long time.

Following the conclusion of the case Met Officers DC Briselden and DC Hansraj received commendations from the judge for their "painstaking and thorough" investigation.

"The investigation into the shooting was fraught with difficulty, it seems no one was keen to tell the police anything of the truth."

Judge Ian Darling said during sentencing: "In this investigation there is no doubt the police started from scratch and built a case painstakingly and thoroughly.

"The investigation into the shooting was fraught with difficulty, it seems no one was keen to tell the police anything of the truth.

"The Met Police had no active leads on which to investigate the shooting and were completely in the dark.

"The police set about a particularly onerous and impressive trawl through phone contacts to try and identify potential suspects.

"It was by its nature a slow and thankless task which thankfully and to the credit of the investigate officers finally bore fruit."