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Teenager killed his friend with airgun
A TEENAGER killed his friend by shooting him in the eye with an air rifle which he believed was unloaded, a court heard. Alex Cole, aged 12, died after a pellet passed through his eye into his brain in what Sheffield Crown Court heard was "an accident waiting to happen".
A 15-year-old boy denies manslaughter in the shooting at a house in Conisbrough. The court heard the boys were alone in the house.
Prosecutor William Lowe QC said Alex was in his friend's bedroom, playing a game console, when they began to talk about guns.
"The defendent went and got, from underneath the bed in his parents' room, a powerful air rifle recently acquired by his father," he said.
Mr Lowe added: "When he was pointing the gun at Alex Cole's head, he discharged the weapon. A pellet entered Alex's right eyelid and travelled through his eye into his brain. No treatment was possible and Alex died the next evening."
However, Alex did not immediately lose consciousness and his friend only realised his injury after he had taken the gun back to his parents' room and returned to find Alex's eye bleeding heavily.
The court heard a harrowing account of his 999 call in which the panicking boy told the operator he had shot his friend with a gun and that it was an accident.
He said: "I didn't think there was owt in it. It went off. I thought he was kidding at first."
During the course of the telephone conversation, Alex went into shock and was unconscious by the time paramedics arrived.
Alex was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary before being transferred to Sheffield Children's Hospital where his ventilator was switched off the next evening.
Pathologist Christopher Milroy concluded Alex died from a gun shot wound to the head.
The court heard the boy's father had bought the gun from a neighbour.
The case continues.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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