83-YEAR-OLD FARMER WHO SHOT A BURGLAR CLEARED IN 24 MINS..
A PENSIONER accused of shooting a suspected thief has been cleared of any wrongdoing by a jury.
Kenneth Hugill, 83, wept outside court after a charge of grievous bodily harm over shooting convicted burglar Richard Stables, 44, was thrown out in just 24 minutes.
Farmer Mr Hugill, who had to spend £30,000 funding his defence during the three-day trial, said: “I’m very, very pleased. It’s marvellous. We thought I shouldn’t have been prosecuted right from the start. I didn’t feel it was justified at the time.
“I pulled the trigger because I thought that car was going to kill me.”
The court heard how Mr Hugill, who uses a walking stick and a hearing aid, woke at night in November, 2015, next to wife Sheila, 78, at the secluded family farm. After noticing a light outside and the silhouette of a vehicle going past, he grabbed a shotgun and went to investigate.
Startled by the sudden revving of the Land Rover’s engine and fearing it was coming towards him, he fired one shot low down to the side of the vehicle and another into the air to scare the intruders off.
Mr Stables was hit in the foot by the first shot and was then driven to hospital by friend Adrian Barron, 40, a criminal with convictions for burglary and violence.
Mr Stables, who turned up at Hull crown court in a wheelchair because of his injuries, claimed had only been hunting for rabbits that night. He told the jury he was putting his dog back into the car when he was shot without warning. But the court heard the two men may have been on the site to steal diesel from tanks near the farmhouse, in Wilberfoss, East Yorkshire, because a lock was later found to have been “tampered with”.
Mr Hugill’s son David, 50, said the two intruders should have been prosecuted.
He said: “You have an 83-year-old protecting his farm at night, in the middle of nowhere and a police response that is very slow.
“People have the right to protect their property at night when there is no response or back-up.” Gerry Wareham, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It was in the public interest to prosecute Mr Hugill.”