Pensioner who pulled pistol on schoolboys after their football hit his fence is spared jail

A pensioner pointed a gun at at 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy after ordering them to stop playing a ball game near his home. Lionel Green threatened the two boys with a ‘lethal’ .22 Webley air pistol - fitted with a silencer - after their ball hit his fence.



Manchester Crown Court heard that the victims were playing ‘kerbie’ - where kids throw a ball across the street at the kerb and then catch it - outside Green’s home in Wythenshawe, Manchester, when their day took a terrifying turn. The 67-year-old had been drinking in his front garden when he snapped, the court heard.

Pointing the imitation handgun at each of them in turn, Green ordered them to stop the game. The younger of the two ‘scared’ boys later told police he believed he was going to be shot by his gun-toting neighbour. Police later recovered two airguns from his home. The pistol pointed at the young boys was test-fired by police and was capable of causing a ‘potentially lethal injury’, Gary Woodhall, prosecuting, told court.



Following his arrest Green complained that ‘shouting, screaming, rampant’ youngsters ‘running wild’ on his estate had been winding him up, but he insisted he had legally bought the weapons to deal with slugs in his garden. “He may well have had trouble on the estate, whether it was these children or others we don’t know, but nothing justifies what followed”, Mr Woodhall added. Green, 67, was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, plus supervision and a requirement to attend an alcohol treatment course after admitting possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.