A teenager who shot a 15-year-old boy in the face with a double-barrelled shotgun as he walked to school has been found guilty of attempted murder.
The victim, who had known the defendant since primary school, was blasted from less than 1.5 metres away, a trial at Ipswich Crown Court heard.
He was shot while walking to school in Kesgrave, near Ipswich, on September 7 last year - the first day back since the national coronavirus lockdown.
The 16-year-old defendant said in evidence he wanted to "scare" the boy, who had caused him "humiliation and fear", and that he fired the gun unintentionally.
In a police video interview played to jurors, a friend said that the defendant had spoken of a plan to shoot the boy - but the friend added he did not think he was being serious.
He said the teenager "adored" a computer game in which players shoot people, which is "hyper-realistic in its violence".
The defendant took his father's car and drove to the location where he waited for the boy for more than an hour before he shot him with his grandfather's Beretta, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones QC said.
Air ambulance doctor Chloe Baker said the victim's gunshot wound "extended across his lower right face and the right front area of his neck, and the bone and teeth of his right jaw were largely absent."
Ms Karmy-Jones described the boy's injuries as "devastating and life-changing", adding that he was left "partially paralysed".
The injured boy's mother screamed "what have you done" three times in a CCTV clip played to the court.
A witness said the defendant appeared "very calm, very cool, very collected" after the shooting and "didn't seem to have any urgency about him".
He drove from the scene and was arrested later that morning by armed police as he sat in the parked car five miles away in Ipswich, with officers describing him as "smiling".
In police bodycam footage played to the court, the teenager told officers: "I've done what I wanted to do, as scummy as it is."
He also told officers that the arrest was "exciting".
The defendant said he was referring to "being arrested in such a dramatic fashion" and that this was his way of "distracting myself from what happened".
Prosecutors said the boys had remained friends despite "playful fighting", which he said was "nothing serious", but the defendant claimed he had been caused "humiliation and fear" by the victim.
He was also found guilty of possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger the boy's life.
The teen was found not guilty of possessing a shotgun with intent to cause fear of injury to one of the boy's neighbours, who the weapon was allegedly pointed at.
The defendant previously admitted possessing a shotgun with intent to cause fear of injury to the boy.
A charge of unlawfully wounding the boy with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm was vacated by judge Martyn Levett.
