24 years for boy who shot his friend, 15, in the face
Violent video game obsessive stole grandad’s shotgun for school run attack on first day of term after lockdown
A JUDGE warned about the risk of ‘glorified’ violence in computer games yesterday as he jailed a schoolboy for 24 years for shooting a friend in the face.
Jacob Talbot-Lummis was just 15 when he lay in wait for his victim before greeting him with the words ‘hola amigo’ and blasting him with a single shot from a shotgun.
The boy, also 15 at the time, was left with devastating wounds to his face and neck. A stroke caused partial paralysis and he will need care for the rest of his life.
Talbot-Lummis, now 16, claimed he had only wanted to frighten the boy in revenge for years of bullying and the gun went off by mistake. But a jury found him guilty of attempted murder, possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life, and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
During the four-week trial, which ended in June, they heard the defendant had an infatuation with violence that included gory video games and sick websites.
Lifting an anonymity order as he sentenced him, Judge Martyn Levett noted he had played virtual reality computer games ‘obsessively’ since he was nine, living in a ‘virtual world more suitable for 18-year-olds’.
Voicing concern about ‘the frequent glorification of shooting a character on screen’, he stated playing such games ‘was a factor for the onset of violent fantasies you had’.
Photographs show Talbot-Lummis, aged about ten, gleefully wielding a fake assault rifle.
He was told he would have an extra five years on licence after serving at least two-thirds of his sentence because of the risk he presents to the public.
While on remand at a young offenders’ institute he boasted he would ‘probably kill again’ on his release and ‘wanted to be famous for chemical warfare’.
Judge Levett said: ‘The manner in which this offence was planned and committed is sufficient to tell me that you are a dangerous offender. There was significant premeditation and planning.’
The victim is entitled to anonymity under the law. His parents watched proceedings on a monitor in a side room and declined to comment afterwards.
Talbot-Lummis took the doublebarrelled Beretta 12-bore shotgun from his grandfather’s gun cabinet. He used it to fire at the boy from a range of less than 5ft on September 7 last year as he left home in Kesgrave, near Ipswich, to walk to school, his first day back after lockdown.
As the victim’s mother rushed out, he held up the gun with a ‘righteous and almost smug look’ on his face. The defendant, who lived with his alcoholic mother Stephanie Lummis in Martlesham, told his trial that the boy, who he had known since primary school, had bullied him. But the prosecution said any bullying was ‘low level’ and had never been reported to the school or his parents.
The day before the shooting Talbot-Lummis played Blood Trail, a ‘hyper-realistic’ violent computer game in which users take on the role of a hitman.
He was also a fan of Best Gore, a now defunct website that showed videos of real stomach-churning incidents and sent a friend a video of an Islamic State beheading.