Trespasser sues the landowner who shot him for £3m damages

A TEENAGER who was shot with an unlicensed gun when trespassing on a country estate is now suing for damages, four years after the millionaire owner was acquitted of attempted murder.

Tom Frearson, who was 16 at the time, was trespassing on the Witley Park Estate near Godalming, Surrey, when businessman Gary Steele, 63, shot him in the back with a double-barrelled shotgun.

The Daily Mail reported that Mr Frearson admitted he had been trespassing on the grounds with other teenagers on July 8, 2018, the day before the shooting, when the group were chased by staff on quad bikes.

He claimed that the next day he had been walking outside the estate’s perimeter on a public footpath on Lea Coach Road when Mr Steele shot him from over the wall and yelled: “I told you not to come back.”

Mr Steele, who did not have a licence for the shotgun, admitted shooting Mr Frearson to police and was later acquitted of attempted murder, wounding with intent and unlawful wounding.

He was, however, sentenced to a 15month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, for the possession of a shotgun without a licence.

Mr Frearson is now suing Mr Steele for damages of nearly £3 million.

The boy was taken to hospital at the time with gunshot wounds to the left upper arm and back.

Mr Frearson claims he will need around 50 operations to remove shotgun pellets still in his body and says he has developed post-traumatic stress disorder, and also suffers from panic attacks, nightmares, depression and fatigue.

He claims that Mr Steele shot him deliberately “intending to kill or seriously injure him” and that there is no defence to his claim.

Mr Steele’s partner, Amanda Karm, later told police that Mr Steele had phoned her, saying “I think I got one of them”, the reported.