Ex-soldier ‘shot woman three times’

A Gun-obsessed former soldier suffering from post traumatic stress shot his landlady twice before calmly putting his weapon to her head and firing a third shot into her skull, a court heard.

Aaron Wilkinson, 24, blasted Judith Garnett, 52, with a shotgun in the attic of her bungalow, where he lodged.

A jury was told that Wilkinson ( above), who denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, “spoke about the fact that he had not managed to kill any enemy soldier whilst in action and seemed disappointed at not having fired a single shot”.

The prosecution also said that Mrs Garnett’s son John described Wilkinson as “obsessed with guns, getting quite animated in discussions about them”.

Mrs Garnett, who ran a game farm, had herself returned from a day’s shooting to her home in Woodlesford in Leeds, West Yorks, in January last year.

Wilkinson had toured Afghanistan for six months in 2009.

The trial continues.