A FATHER who shot a neighbour in the head with an air rifle pellet over a long-running land dispute has been jailed for six months.

Ronald Carpenter was locked up four days before Christmas after a judge said he had escalated the row to a "disgraceful level".

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the 49-year-old dad-of-four had clashed with Leonard Laws over the land in Lydd for about four years.

Alex Rooke, prosecuting, said the dispute was over access to land and rights of passage.

During an argument on January 24 Mr Laws saw that Carpenter had an air rifle he used for shooting rabbits. As Carpenter went to leave, he turned and shot at the victim.

Mr Rooke said Mr Laws was hit in the head from about 70 yards by the 2.2 weapon "of some power". Carpenter was arrested by armed officers.

Mr Laws later went to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, where the pellet was removed and the wound stitched. He was not able to work as a sub-contractor for steel erection for six weeks.

Carpenter, of Romney Road, Lydd, admitted discharging the gun but said the pellet had ricocheted. He pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and possessing a firearm.

He claimed that Mr Laws had used an angle grinder on a lock before the gun went off, but accepted the shooting was a reckless and deliberate act.