Gran’s terror as gunman opened fire at her home
Man’s ‘vendetta’ with her son was behind attack
AGRAN told of her terror after a gunman opened fire at her home in broad daylight.
Ross Pate fired a shotgun into her home after he had become embroiled in a ‘vendetta’ with her son.
No-one was hurt in the shooting, in which two bullets were fired.
One smashed the front window of her home while the other hit the front door.
The woman was alone in the property in Rochdale at the time, in her bedroom sleeping.
Pate, 41, was accompanied by two other men, Jason Charnley, 36 and Richard Powell, 40, Manchester Crown Court heard.
The trio all face jail sentences after pleading guilty to a firearms offence.
Pate said he believed the house, on Hill Top Drive in Kirkholt, was empty at the time.
The victim only realised the enormity of what had happened in the aftermath of the shooting, which occurred at about 6pm on Sunday, March 27, 2022.
“I was, and still am, in complete disbelief that somebody fired a gun into my house,” the victim said in a statement drawn up about a year-and-a-half after the incident.
“You expect to read these things in the news, you
don’t expect it to happen to you. As bad as it was and as much of a nightmare it was, I’m aware of how much worse it could have been. I was left in shock for days and utterly terrified.”
Prosecuting, Mark Kellet said: “Ross Pate was the gunman, he had attended with the two defendants.
“The reason for the discharge of the firearm was that a grievance between Mr Pate and her son had taken place at some point earlier.”
The court heard that the gun has not been recovered. “When I think about it, this really frightens me,” the victim said.
She told of the emotional toll of her ordeal in her statement, adding: “I just kept crying, it was awful.
“I couldn’t be on my own
and had real difficulty feeling safe wherever I was. I was left unable to sleep.
“The attack on me and my home has changed the way I am.
“I am now a very nervous person, jumpy, considerably paranoid and a bit angrier. I no longer feel safe and secure in my home.”
She told how she’d installed a video doorbell camera and more lighting as extra security measures.
She added: “I hope that with time things will get better, but I don’t know if this will happen.”
Pate, of Newchurch Street, Rochdale; Charnley, of Roch Mills Crescent, Rochdale and Powell, of Ogden Street, Rochdale; all pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
They went on trial accused of the more serious offence of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and were all acquitted.
The trio all have lengthy criminal records, with Pate committing 84 offences and 42 offences and 31 offences are on Charnley and Powell’s records respectively.
Adam Roxborough, for Pate, said the shooting was ‘dreamt up in drink at a house gathering.’
He said that another reveller had a weapon ‘available’ which was then used in the shooting. He said that Pate spent ‘a little under two minutes’ checking whether anyone was in the property prior to opening fire.
Mr Roxborough said the offence was ‘unsophisticated’ and that it was ‘not planned to any great extent’ adding that Pate is remorseful.
Paul Treble, for Charnley, said: “They clearly didn’t want to injure anyone.” He said their aim was to ‘stop the third party from escalating the vendetta any further’ by ‘saying we have a gun.’ He certainly regrets what he has done, it’s a very silly, reckless thing to do,” he added.
“It appears to have been a somewhat off-the-cuff decision after drinking alcohol,” Rachel Cooper, for Powell said.
She said Powell acted out of a ‘misguided sense of loyalty and friendship’ and said he now ‘wishes he had made a very different decision.’
Judge Rachel Smith adjourned sentencing until next week.