Man jailed after game of Russian roulette using Argos catalogue ends in disaster

A teenager was shot in the stomach during a "Jackass" version of Russian roulette. Paul Black, 39, and 18-year-old John Harris took turns to have an Argos catalogue strapped to their torso while the other shot at it with an airgun. After each turn, pages were ripped from the catalogue.

Black's solicitor Peter Lockhart told Ayr Sheriff Court: "The catalogue became thinner and thinner. Inevitably it was going to end in disaster and that was the eventual outcome." When it was Black's turn to shoot at Harris, who has learning difficulties, the pellet went through the depleted catalogue and into his stomach.



He started bleeding and Black rushed him to hospital. They concocted a story that Harris had been hit by a ricochet, but when the teenager saw his parents, he told the truth. The pellet was removed by keyhole surgery.

The court heard that when police asked Black why he had got involved in the game, he said: "Stupidness, watching too many Jackass movies." Father-of-three Black, from Girvan, Ayrshire, admitted injuring Harris by culpably and recklessly firing an air rifle on October 9 last year, and contravening the Firearms Act. Sheriff Jack McGowan jailed him for 28 months.