A pensioner who accidentally shot a five-year-old boy in the head two years ago was freed yesterday after being fined £5,000.
Omagh Crown Court heard Fergus Eugene Cleary (73) shot Darragh Somers "in a freak accident" in the back of the head with a .22 rifle as he played with school friends in the grounds of St Patrick's Primary School at Mullinaskea near Enniskillen.
Cleary, who admitted unlawfully and maliciously wounding Darragh on April 22nd, 2005, had been shooting at a bird, but missed and the bullet, which fell 14m, hit the schoolboy in the back of the head.
Judge McFarland criticised Cleary, a former vice-chairman of the school's board of governors, for the delay in admitting his guilt. Paying tribute to the "resilience" of Darragh and his family, Judge McFarland however added that "this incident has not been helped by the very long time it has taken you to admit your responsibility".
Judge McFarland said the incident "was a quite unique incident, involving the discharge of one round during a normal and common rural activity, albeit carried out in a grossly negligent manner".
However, in all the circumstances he did not "believe that this offence is so serious to warrant a custodial sentence".
James Gallagher QC, defending, described the shooting as a "freak accident - a million to one chance". He said Cleary fired a single shot at a bird, but missed and that it was accepted by the prosecution that there was "no possible motive at all on the part of Mr Cleary to wish to injure anyone, let alone a wish to injure Darragh".
Darragh, now aged seven, was critically injured and had to have three major operations to remove the bullet and spent a further two months in hospital recovering.
Darragh's father Gerald Somers said the shooting had left his young son partially and permanently blinded in one eye. "He will never be the boy we sent out on that day to school," he said.