A YOUNG man who shot a woman in the buttocks with an air rifle has walked free a from court.

Ben Halstead, 22, of Effingham Crescent, Dover, was told it was time he grew up when he appeared for sentence at Canterbury Crown Court.

Mr Recorder Cairns Nelson said only a custodial sentence was justified.

“Members of the public cannot be shot in car parks without there being a reckoning,” he said.

Halstead was given a 12- month jail sentence suspended for two years, and ordered to pay his victim £300 compensation.

He was also given a 12-month supervision order and ordered to attend a course aimed at changing his behaviour. Halstead admitted assault causing actual bodily harm in July, when sentence was adjourned for reports.

Tetteh Turkson, prosecuting, said the shooting happened after the victim, from Deal, had been at work. She was returning to her car, in a car park near MFI in Dover.

Halstead had been at a flat in Russell Street with his brother and friends. The woman called police after she heard another shot and was able to identify the flat to officers.

They arrested Halstead, who still had the air rifle, at his home. He claimed the rifle had gone off accidentally when he dropped it, but a firearms expert said the gun would not have fired if it had been dropped.

Halstead later admitted pulling the trigger.

Catherine Donnelly, defending, said the shooting was a stupid and immature act, and that Halstead was a silly young man.

Mr Recorder Nelson said Halstead had caused the victim an unpleasant and painful injury and distress. But he added: “I am prepared to accept it was a stupid, immature prank rather than a malicious attempt to injure her.”

He said he was passing a suspended sentence because Halstead had no convictions for violence. Mr Recorder Nelson added: “It is time you grew up.”

In a statement read to the court, the woman said that after the shooting, she suffered panic attacks, sleeplessness, tearfulness, paranoia, fear and anger.

“On top of that was the embarrassment caused by the nature of the injury and extreme discomfort,” she added.

The woman, who is a widow, said she had to force herself to return to work, and that the injury caused her difficulties because her job involved sitting down for long periods.

“I am still very conscious when out in the open, particularly in the area of my workplace,” she added. “The incident heightened my fears and anxiety.

“It is the realisation I could quite easily be dead if it struck in another area.”