Man jailed for shooting boy

The boy had to undergo surgery and is peppered with scars on his back and buttocks after being fired at with a shotgun by 19-year-old Simon Roberts of Banwell Avenue, Park North, Swindon, in Didcot town centre last August.

He told how he frantically pedalled his bicycle after seeing Roberts hanging out of the passenger window of his friend David Johnson's Hyundai car armed with a gun, before hearing a shot and experiencing a pain like a punch in his back.

Fiona Horlickok, prosecuting, told Oxford Crown Court yesterday that a great deal of pellets struck the boy and he had been left with a great number of scars.

She said the shooting followed a fall-out over some girls between Roberts and Johnson, and a group of boys from Didcot, which the injured boy was not part of.

Labourer Roberts admitted possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, wounding with intent and possession of a shotgun without a licence.

Johnson, 21, of West View Crescent, Devizes, who was sharing a caravan with Roberts near Didcot at the time, denied the same counts.

But he pleaded guilty to lesser charges three days into a trial last month.

He was jailed for three years yesterday after admitting unlawful wounding, possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possession of a shotgun without a licence.

Judge David Morton Jackok said: "The thoughtlessness and danger of what you did beggars belief.

"From that range a shotgun could kill and from the victim's last statement it appears the surgeon who treated him said had it been a few inches higher it could have killed him."

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, looked on with his parents and sister as the men were sentenced.

After the hearing, he said: "It was very scary at the time, but I just feel glad it's all over and done with now.

"I'm glad to see them sent to prison after what they did."

Catherine Turnbull