Wigan girl shot with air rifle will need operation

A judge has condemned a man who shot two Wigan children with an air rifle while they were playing in their bedroom and jailed him for 52 months.
Bolton Crown CourtBolton Crown Court
Bolton Crown Court

One of the victims, a 12-year-old girl, still has a pellet lodged in her cheek after Neil Storey took aim at her and her five-year-old brother, Bolton Crown Court was told.

She still suffers pain while eating and will require surgery after the attack at their Platt Bridge home last September, the court heard.

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Jailing Storey, Judge Timothy Clayson said: “In each of these cases it could have resulted in the loss of their eyesight.”

Prosecutor Anthony Stephenson said the children had been aiming toy guns at some nearby trees.

But even Storey himself accepted this could be no excuse for what he had done.

Defence counsel Tom Watson, who stressed his client wanted to “unreservedly apologise”, added: “Children playing is children playing and they didn’t deserve what he did.”

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Storey, 37, of Hawthorns, off Water Street, Atherton, admitted two offences of unlawful wounding.

Mr Stephenson said the girl later told police he pulled up in his car and took out an produced what appeared to be an air rifle, which he fired at them through their bedroom window.

The five-year-old was struck by a ball bearing to his forehead, which was removed at Wigan Infirmary, said Mr Stephenson.

But the pellet which hit his sister - because of its position - would require surgery to dislodge it.