Man jailed for Exeter Globe pub shooting spree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-49570929

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A man shot a student in the face and injured several others by aiming his air rifle at customers outside a pub from the window of his flat.

James Brinkworth trained the weapon's telescopic sight on people outside The Globe Inn in Exeter from his home in Clifton Road.

His shooting spree over the course of six hours injured four people.

The 29-year-old, who admitted unlawful wounding in April, has been jailed at Exeter Crown Court for 30 months.

The court heard Brinkworth first opened fire just after 16:00 BST on 15 March, using pellets deigned to expand upon impact.

He hit Paul Gale in the back and then Syed Hassan in the stomach with a pellet that penetrated a coat and three layers of clothing.

At about 22:00 BST Brinkworth fired again, first hitting pedestrian Henry Dawson in the back, then student Dongya Wang, who needed surgery to remove a pellet from his cheek.

'Extremely dangerous'

Armed police arrested the defendant in his flat.

In mitigation, Emily Cook said he had been a promising jockey who had become upset watching former colleagues racing on television that day. She said he had been drinking heavily at the time of the attacks.

In addition to unlawful wounding, Brinkworth had pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of criminal damage, for which he received a 21-month sentence, to run concurrently.

At sentencing, Judge Peter Johnson said: "You engaged in extremely dangerous and frightening behaviour using an air rifle with lethal capacity."

"This was a completely senseless and random attack," he added.