Man playing with shotgun blasts himself in the groin
AMAN blasted himself in the groin after picking up a friend’s sawn-off shotgun to see what it was like to handle a weapon.
Michael Harris was injured when the gun went off accidentally.
He was found “doubled pain outside Birmingham’s Elizabeth Hospital.
The 37-year-old had removed from his groin, ham Crown Court heard.
But his suffering did not end there as he was jailed for five years after admitting possessing a prohibited firearm. Benjamin Williams, defending, had asked the court to take his client’s “suffering” into account.
Passing sentence, Judge Kristina Montomery QC told Harris that guns were a “blight upon this city” and went on: “It was, on any view, a determined attempt by you to involve yourself with a firearm.”
The judge said he had only been in possession of the gun for a short period of time but was well aware of what it was and it was a “serious and viable weapon”.
The judge said Harris had taken it “out of curiosity or simply to have the up” in Queen pellets Birming- experience self ”.
Police were called to Oscott Road, Perry Barr, after a gunshot was heard at around 7.40am on May 12.
The gun was found beneath parked van with two cartridges in one still live.
CCTV showed Harris arriving with another man in a car at the hospital and left lying at the entrance.
Mr Williams said Harris had been drinking with others and had gone out to get more alcohol from a garage. He met a friend who was standing by a car and holding something in his hand.
The defendant then took the item, a shotgun, out of a bag which then went off. of handling it for your- a it,