A RETIRED Broughton man shot a youth in the eye with an air rifle after being awoken during the early hours by what he thought was an intruder at his door, a court was told this week.

Paul Phillip Evans, 19, from St Ives, Cambs, was blinded in the shooting after suffering a two-centimetre laceration to his left eyeball following the incident just after 3am on November 2 last year.

At Lancaster Crown Court, Anthony Goldsworthy Spray, 63, of High Cross Bungalow, Broughton-in-Furness, pleaded not guilty to intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.

The court heard that Mr Evans, a trainee civil engineer, had travelled from Cambridgeshire to

a family party at the High Cross Inn, which is next door to Spray's bungalow

Having eaten little on the journey, Mr Evans had drunk lager and Southern Comfort at the hotel and, after a meal, had gone to his BMW car to listen to hip-hop and rap music alone, rather than impose it on his family.

At about 3am, having urinated in some bushes, he decided to return to the hotel but mistook the Sprays's bungalow for the three-storey High Cross Inn, and began knocking at the door.

Giving evidence, Spray told how he was awoken at 3am by his wife Patricia shouting very loudly, "Tony, what on earth is happening'," over and over again.

The former agricultural worker from Lincolnshire, who retired to Broughton three years ago, told the court: "There was a tremendous banging and rattling from the area of the front door

I got out of bed, grabbed my dressing gown and slippers and grabbed my air rifle and pellets."

He told how after loading the gun and placing spare pellets in his pocket, he went into the hall and said his door, held closed only by a security chain, was being rattled backwards and forwards.

The defendant told the court that he shouted "go away" but the door continued to rattle.

Then, he claimed, he pushed the door but could not close it, so he removed the security chain and stepped quickly back.

The court heard how Spray said the door was flung open, and he saw the figure of a young man in the porch, silhouetted by the outdoor lights.

Then he said, the figure swore at him and lunged at him.

It was then Spray fired the gun, the shot sent Mr Evans reeling backwards but, according to Spray, his assailant lunged at him again, and with no time to reload, Spray spun the gun round and hit Mr Evans in the head two or three times with the butt of the rifle, forcing him backwards. He said Evans slumped to the floor of the porch, where he remained.

Spray said he had not aimed the gun but "shot from the hip" and was "surprised and horrified" to find that he had shot Mr Evans in the eye.

During his first day in the witness box, Spray told the court he had been "very, very afraid."

"I was afraid for my safety and for my wife's safety. I was thinking of self-preservation. When you are under attack and you have just woken up, you perhaps do not do the most logical thing."

The case continues

April 11, 2003 09:30