Sex fantasy game went wrong as woman shot in genitals by Leeds man in hotel room

A court heard the weapon was discharged after David Jeffers, of Leeds, pointed the shotgun between the woman's legs during a drink and cocaine fuelled sex game.

Jeffers was jailed for ten years today after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The 47-year-old had initially been facing trial for attempted murder.

But the charge was dropped after a court heard the victim had willingly taken part in a sexual fantasy.

Manchester Minshull Crown Court heard the woman had discussed having a loaded gun pointed at her genital area in the days leading up to the incident on January 30 this year.

She referred to the weapon as 'The Ting' and sent a text message saying "can't sleep, so excited" shortly before meeting Jeffers.

Jeffers met the 46-year-old woman at the Brittania Hotel in Stockport where they had sex, drank and took drugs.

Peter Wright, QC, told the court Jeffers produced the firearm and pointed it at her genitals.

He said: "The firearm was discharged, causing catastrophic internal injuries.

"Although the discharge of the firearm was unintentional it is the prosecution's case that it was the defendant who discharged it and accordingly he must have been holding it and had his finger, at some stage, on the trigger."

After firing the weapon Jeffers rang the hotel's night manager and told him to call an ambulance.

He left the woman for dead, naked and bleeding on the bed.

Jeffers sneaked out of the hotel through the backdoor and caught a train back to Leeds, where he changed his appearance, including cutting his hair

The woman, who can't be named, told hotel staff and paramedics who arrived to find her gravely injured: "I have been shot. I am in agony. I am going to die."

She later told hospital medical staff: "The man was a bad man. He tried to blow my insides out."

She was taken to hospital where her life was saved thanks to skilled surgeons.

Multiple internal injuries had been caused to her abdomen area from the discharge of gunshot pellets.

The court heard she has suffered life changing physical and psychological injuries which make "harrowing reading".

She was later able to describe the weapon as being a shotgun with a barrel and around the same size as a handgun.

Police recovered Jeffers's DNA and fingerprints from the hotel room and focused the search for him to Leeds.

He was arrested at an address on Amberton Grove, Gipton.

Jeffers initially lied to police that the woman had pointed the weapon at herself before pulling the trigger.

He lied to officers that he had found the weapon in the toilets at the Wetherspoons pub at Leeds railway station.

Jeffers, of Berkley Terrace, Leeds, later admitted that he had disposed of the weapon in a bin in Stockport as he made his way back to West Yorkshire.

Oliver Saxby, QC, mitigating, said Jeffers had pleaded guilty to the offence on the basis that he had brought the firearm to the hotel for the victim as part of a sexual fantasy she had about having a loaded shotgun pointed at her.

Mr Saxby said Jeffers accepted putting his finger on the trigger but not pulling it deliberately.

He said: "She was an utterly willing participant."

The barrister said Jeffers had no previous convictions for firearms offences and was ashamed and sorry for what had happened.

Jailing Jeffers, judge John Potter said: "You took the gun with you and did not stay with (the victim) to provide help and support or assist the emergency services who you knew would come soon.

"It shows that you prioritised your own self-centred needs above that of a seriously injured woman lying helpless and naked on a bed, who for all you knew may have been close to death.

"Deliberately placing a firearm against somebody's body, on any view, is clearly a reckless, serious and criminal use of the firearm concerned."