Boy, 12, left blind in one eye by teenager with catapult - offender sentenced in Sheffield
“I don’t know what you were doing, firing pellets where people were around”
A teenager shot out a 12-year-old boy’s eye while recklessly firing a catapult, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Kaine Tighe, now aged 20, of Lang Avenue, Lundwood, was 18 on March 31, 2025, when he brandished the slingshot in the Stairfoot area of the town.
One of the pellets he fired struck a child in the eye, blinding him.
Sheffield Crown Court heard on Tuesday, July 21, how the 18-year-old culprit then tried to coerce the boy and his friends into not telling the police.
“It was inevitable that authorities would find out as he had to go to the hospital,” His Honour Judge Tony Dunne KC told Tighe.
“This has resulted in a permanent, irreversible injury, which will impact his ability to work in the future.
“I don’t know what you were doing, firing pellets where people were around. But you must realise now it was incredibly dangerous and caused the lifelong injuries you did that day.
“[Your victim] will have to live with that from the age of 12.
“What you did is serious enough that you could be sentenced to detention in a young offenders’ institute - and anyone who knows [the victim], or even he himself, may think that is appropriate.”
However, the judge spared the 20-year-old immediate custody in light of his early guilty plea to possessing an offensive weapon and inflicting grievoud bodily harm.
He was instead sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders’ institute suspended for two years, and was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
He must also pay £1,200 in compensation to the 12-year-old over the next year.
The judge said: “The fact there was some attempt by you to persuade him not to inform the police is not a significant factor because of your age and immaturity.
“The amount of compensation is not a reflection of the seriousness or the cost of the injuries to [the victim].
“It is likely if a civil claim were to be made, it’s likely a far higher sum would be imposed.”