A dad is lucky not to have been blinded after an angry neighbour shot him in the head with an air rifle during a row over a boundary hedge.
Darrian Palmer was targeted by irate pensioner Malcolm Newsome after clippings from the bush ended up in his garden in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire.
Enraged, the 73-year-old chucked some of the clippings back before emerging from his home with the rifle and blasting dad-of-three Darrian, 37, in the forehead.
After allegedly shouting "your f****** hedge is in my garden!" Newsome is said to have told the self-employed tradesman to "take a closer look" over the fence before shooting him as peered over.
Darrian told The Sun: “I said, ‘Get a grip, it’s a few little bits.’ He then told me to take a closer look by his fence and that’s when he grabbed the rifle, aimed and shot me.
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"At first I didn’t even feel it. The adrenaline had kicked in.
“But I’m lucky I’m not blind. One inch lower and it would have definitely been life-changing.”
Darrian's wife Claire pulled the weapon away from Newsome as her husband writhed around in agony on the ground.
The air rifle pellet had become lodged in his skull and had to be removed at hospital, before the wound was stitched up.
Retired HGV driver Newsome was arrested and later accepted a charge of unlawful wounding at Leeds Crown Court.
He was given 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, as well as 120 hours of unpaid work and a curfew.
Darrian still lives next door to his attacker and said he was disappointed Newsome wasn't given an immediate prison term, arguing his age shouldn't have come into it.
He added while he and his family have "been through hell" his neighbour gets to continue "as if nothing happened".
