Shot toddler's mother demands airgun controls

The parents of a toddler shot in the head by a family friend are calling for tighter controls on airguns.

Harry Studley, now aged two, still has a pellet lodged in his brain after Jordan Walters shot him at a flat in Bristol last July.

His parents Amy Allen and Edward Studley said they want airgun licences to be introduced.

Walters admitted causing grievous bodily harm (GBH). He will be sentenced on 24 February.

His partner Emma Horseman was found not guilty earlier this week of GBH by aiding or abetting the shooting.

Miss Allen said she wants an airgun licensing system introduced such as the tighter legislation announced in Scotland in 2016.

Walters was cleaning the high powered air rifle used in the shooting

Mr Studley said what Walters did was a "stupid act".

"We want to have a law put in place where people have to have a licence to own an airgun," he said.

"We need to put the awareness out there so other parents who own air weapons, any kind of weapons, are careful round their kids so the same thing doesn't happen to their children because what we've been through I wouldn't wish on our worst enemy."

Harry lived with his parents and brother in a top-floor flat in Bishport Avenue, Hartcliffe, while Ms Horseman lived on the second floor with Walters and their two children.

They had been friends for about six years and their children played together.

Miss Allen had taken her two children to the flat and was sat on a sofa holding Harry, who was upset and crying, on her lap.

Walters then fired the gun at Harry, who was 18 months old, believing it to be empty.

Amy Allen is calling for air guns to be licensed

Miss Allen said: "Before I could do anything I heard a gun, a shot, then Harry screaming in pain.

"I felt like my heart was destroyed at that stage."

Harry was flown to hospital for emergency surgery and Miss Allen said it was "the hardest thing in my life to see him looking lifeless".

She said: "I was told it was very serious and I might want to say goodbye to him."

Mr Studley said Harry is "brilliant in himself" but he has "complex needs" and he needs to be "monitored constantly for seizures".

"He has problems with his vision, seizures, weakness to his left-hand side," he said.

He added that they are carrying on with their lives "as best we can".

Harry Studley met the crew of the Great Western Air Ambulance that flew him to hospital after the shooting