Shot at ... for trying to retrieve her rabbit
Gunman fires air pistol at neighbour on his lawn
A GUN club enthusiast ‘opened fire’ on his neighbour when she went into his garden to retrieve her escaped rabbit.
Paul Booth, 52, aimed at Susan Davis after spotting her chasing the pet around his lawn.
Miss Davis, 49, said she felt something whistle ‘right past’ her head and claimed she ‘could have been killed’.
In court, Booth admitted threatening behaviour, but said his air pistol was not loaded with pellets at the time and that he intended only to scare her.
The lop- eared lionhead rabbit, Oreo, had escaped into Booth’s garden through a gap in the fence.
Miss Davis, a civil servant, said: ‘I thought he’d shoot her because he is that type and my 19-year-old daughter was getting really distressed … I went round and knocked on his door three times but there was no answer.
‘Then I went round to see if the back gate was open but it was locked. The only option was to go through the broken fence. I was chasing the rabbit round his garden a couple of minutes.’
Recalling the confrontation with Booth, who is unemployed, Miss Davis said: ‘He appeared in the conservatory and said, “What the f*** are you doing in my garden?”, so I explained I was just trying to get the rabbit.’
She said he swore at her and told her she ‘should have knocked harder’ on the door. Miss Davis added: ‘I said I’d be two minutes but he went in … then came back out and said, “If you don’t get out my f****** garden I’m going to get a firearm”. My blood went cold.
‘It was so extreme and I didn’t know what he was capable of.
‘I said, “Just give me two minutes, I will grab the rabbit and be gone” … I had my back to him, and my partner was behind the fence but he came out behind me and opened fire. I was shocked.’
Miss Davis, who lives with her partner and teenage daughter in north Manchester, said after the case: ‘Thankfully, I’d just ducked out of the way because the rabbit moved – but he is obviously a good shot and could have easily hit me. He could have killed me if he’d hit me … I was so glad I had my back to him, because otherwise I’d have been absolutely terrified.’
She said she had previously been unnerved by her neighbour’s enthusiasm for guns and had photographed him polishing the weapon in his garden.
‘The gun I pictured him cleaning, loading and aiming was the same gun he used to shoot me,’ she said. She showed the images to police when reporting Booth firing at her – and he was arrested.
Miss Davis said the incident in March followed a ten-year feud with Booth, which began with a dispute about parking.
She added: ‘From around four in the morning, he would thud the walls chanting and singing football songs and it was horrific.’
Booth’s lawyer Humayun Khan told Manchester magistrates’ court: ‘There were no pellets in the gun … simply gas. He doesn’t deny firing the pistol. He did not mean to cause anybody harm, just fear to get her off his property.’
Booth, who declined to comment after the case, was handed a ten-week jail sentence suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay Miss Davis £100 compensation.