Woman is jailed for shooting victim in the head

A WOMAN who was shot in the head at point blank range with an air rifle has described her attacker as “evil”.

Samantha Brown, 25, smiled after she was jailed for three years for assaulting 48-year-old Mary Johnson to the danger of her life.

Sheriff David Sutherland at Inverness Sheriff Court told Brown: “Despite your childhood background which has impacted on you in later life, this was an appalling offence which could have had fatal consequences. Anyone who takes an air rifle and shoots someone at close range must expect a significant prison sentence.”

Brown constantly looked over her shoulder from the dock and stared at her victim, who said afterwards: “She is evil. She didn’t seem remorseful at all.

“I am deaf in my right ear and have constant headaches. But I suppose I am lucky because I could have been killed.”

Ms Johnson, of Parkland Place, Balintore in Easter Ross was shot by Brown, of Mansefield Estate, Tain with a .22 weapon on July 5, 2014.

She had been playing games on her tablet in the early hours of the Saturday morning when she heard her dog barking.

She got up to see what was going on and went to the front door.

She said: “I saw someone shooting the birds in the square. It was Sam Brown and she was shooting the gulls. I challenged her and told her I was going to phone the police.

“She turned round, pointed the rifleand the next thing was she shot me. Then she said she was going to shoot me again.

“I was only five feet away from her.”