Man jailed over stepson shooting

A FATHER-OF-FOUR who encouraged his teenage stepson to pose for photographs with a loaded gun was jailed for five years after the boy accidentally shot himself in the head.

Michael Hole, 50, found the semi-automatic Beretta pistol on wasteground near the family home and asked Lewis Bailey, 15, to pose for photos with the weapon held to his head.

The gun fired and the teenager suffered a serious head injury.

Hole, of Hawthorne Avenue, Newport, South Wales, admitted possessing a prohibited weapon and child neglect.

Recorder of Cardiff Nicholas Cooke said there was a minimum five-year sentence for possession of the Beretta but he reduced it to four years because he considered there to be exceptional circumstances. He sentenced Hole to a further year for child neglect.

He said it appeared Lewis had made a full recovery but it was impossible to predict what the long-term impact of his injuries would be.

Martyn Kelly, prosecuting, said: “Clearly Lewis Bailey is a very lucky young man.”

He told the court when the child came home from school on March 2, Hole showed him the .25 Beretta series 950 gun and asked him to pose with it held to his head so he could take a photo on his mobile phone.

The court heard they did not know the gun was loaded. Lewis tried firing the gun at the ground and at his leg and nothing had happened, so they believed it was harmless.

Hole called an ambulance and told the operator the boy had been shot and was dying before fleeing the house, the barrister said.

Police later found the gun hidden in a drain. Hole destroyed the mobile phone which was never found.

Kelly said Hole went to his brother’s house so he could find pills to kill himself and changed his clothes because he did not want to be found in clothes covered in Lewis’s blood.

“He said he didn’t mean to cause Lewis harm, thinking it was a replica or a fake,” Kelly added.

Gareth Williams, mitigating, told the court: “This was a single grossly negligent incident but with no malicious intention.

“What I would say was this was a moment of madness ... He is sorry beyond belief.”

Williams read a statement from Lewis’s mother Edwina Hole in which she said her son had returned to school and was preparing to sit his GCSEs.

She added that Lewis missed his stepfather and said: “Michael is a wonderful husband and devoted stepfather to Lewis.”