A teenager who shot a 15-year-old boy in the face at close range as he walked to school has been sentenced to 24 years in custody for his attempted murder.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was attacked by Jacob Talbot-Lummis in Kesgrave, near Ipswich in Suffolk, on 7 September last year.
Talbot-Lummis, who was also aged 15 at the time of the shooting, can be named after Judge Martyn Levett lifted a reporting restriction that had banned his identification.
The 16-year-old defendant, who was obsessed with guns and violent computer games, “ruthlessly executed” his plan to attack his victim, the judge told Ipswich Crown Court.
Police officers carried out a search on Friends Walk, Kesgrave, Suffolk after the shooting
He shot the boy with a double-barrelled shotgun from less than 1.5 metres (5ft) away, on what was the opening day back to school after the first national lockdown.
An earlier trial heard Talbot-Lummis took his father’s car to drive to the location and lay in wait for the boy for more than an hour before he shot him with his grandfather’s Beretta.
The judge said the victim suffered “unimaginably serious injuries”, still suffers flashbacks and continues to be “reliant on his family”.
“The intention to kill wasn’t formed on the spur of the moment,” he said.
“This was all pre-planned and pre-meditated.”
The judge said Talbot-Lummis had played computer games “obsessively” since he was nine years old, “playing games in a virtual world more suitable for 18-year-olds”.
He said playing such games “was a factor for the onset of violent fantasies you had”, and the judge voiced concern about “the frequent glorification of shooting a character on screen”.
Officers at a cordon on Friends Walk, Kesgrave
Diana Ellis QC, mitigating, said Talbot-Lummis has “expressed his regret and remorse”.
Talbot-Lummis himself said in evidence he wanted to “scare” the boy who had caused him “humiliation and fear” and claimed he fired the gun unintentionally.
But jurors rejected his account and found him guilty in June of attempted murder.
The defendant was also convicted of possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger the boy’s life and possession of a shotgun with intent to cause fear of injury to the boy.
The judge said he had the “protection of the public in mind” as he imposed the extended sentence, comprising 24 years in custody and five years on licence.
Addressing the defendant, he said: “That sentence will affect you until you’re 45 years old.”
