SHOT BOY’S ‘LIVING NIGHTMARE’
Moped shooting victim speaks out after gunman is jailed for almost 12 years
A man has been jailed for nearly 12 years for condemning a teenage boy to a “living nightmare” after shooting him in the head.
Steven Thompson fired an adapted air rifle – which had a telescopic sight, silencer and was adapted to fire pellets at twice the legal velocity – at the 15-year-old after becoming “irritated” by the noise of the bike as it passed his home last October.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the pellet penetrated the teen’s skull and travelled 10 centimetres into his brain.
He needed emergency surgery to save his life, lost a large part of his skull and still has pellet fragments inside his head.
The boy’s life has been changed forever as a result of what happened.
Thompson, of Hewitt Avenue, Sunderland, who initially pretended to be a “good Samaritan” who wanted to help as the boy lay injured at the scene, admitted wounding with intent and having a firearm without a licence.
The air rifle “obsessed” 40-year-old was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months behind bars after the court heard a heartbreaking statement from the his victim, who is now in a wheelchair.
It said: “On October 5, 2016 I was shot in the head while riding on the back of my friend’s moped. I just want someone to listen to how this has affected my life and lives of my friends and family.
“I don’t remember being shot or anything leading up to the incident. I remember waking up in intensive care. I felt like my life had been taken away from me. I was in a living nightmare. At times I wanted to die.”
The court heard the boy spent weeks being fed and receiving water through a tube, before gradually moving on to baby food, which he said was a “living hell”.
He suffered “constant, horrendous pain” and needed to re-learn simple tasks.
The boy needed intensive care while in hospital for four and a half months.
He said: “I will be on medication and need a wheelchair for the rest of my life.”
Thompson has been doing target practice with the adapted air rifle at the back of the house, but moved to the front when he heard the bike go past for the second time. He then fired one shot and returned, briefly, back to practising target sat the back.
Prosecutor Nick Dry told the court: “Apparently, it would seem, he was irritated by the noise of the moped.”
After the shooting, Thompson took the gun to a pal’s home then went back to the scene, where he claimed to have heard something “whizzing by his head” and wanting to help.
He was arrested and a tape recording made as he was transported in a police van confirmed it was he who had taken the shot.
Joe Hedworth, defending, said Thompson accepts full responsibility for what he did but added :“He certainly never intended to cause the dreadful injuries which were sustained.”
Mr Hedworth said what happened was a “split second moment of madness”.