No pity for shot burglars

Burglars who break into rural homes should expect to be shot, a judge has said. Judge Michael Pert QC was speaking at Leicester Crown Court at the sentencing of Joshua O?Gorman and Daniel Mansell, who were shot with a legally held gun after breaking into a farmhouse near Melton Mowbray last month.

The judge told the pair, who pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary, that they could not expect a more lenient sentence just because they were shot during the incident.

He said: ?I make it plain that, in my judgement, being shot is not mitigation. If you burgle a house in the country, where the householder owns a legally held shotgun, that is the chance you take. You cannot come to court and ask for a lighter sentence because of it.?

The rest of this article appears in the 3rd October issue of Shooting Times.

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The rest of this article appears in the 4th July issue of Shooting Times.