Man Jailed For Shooting Partner

A man has been jailed after he shot his girlfriend in the shoulder and neck with a sawn-off shotgun.

Alan Long, 34, of Belper Street, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two offences of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, two of possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing ammunition and production of cannabis.

He was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square, to an indeterminate sentence for public protection, to serve a minimum of six years for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

He was also jailed for three years for possession of ammunition and 12 months for possession of cannabis, both to run concurrently.

Shortly before 7pm on Monday 17 August 2009, police were called to a house on Belper Street, Peel Green, by the ambulance service after a 23-year-old woman was shot.

She was taken to Hope Hospital for a gunshot wound to the shoulder and neck. The impact of the gunshot had blown a large hole in the woman's shoulder and neck.

Although the shot missed all the major organs, she sustained nerve damage as a result and underwent surgery.

She has since made a good recovery.

The victim later told police that she had been arguing with Long in the front bedroom of her house. Her three-year-old daughter was in the house at the time.

The argument continued and he pulled a shotgun from his trousers and held it against her shoulder. The gun then went off, shooting her at point blank range.

Long then fled the scene with the gun in a holdall and got onto a bus. A man on the bus later told police that he saw Long was acting strangely and asked him if he was 'OK'.

He admitted he had just shot his girlfriend with a shotgun and then showed him the gun, now in two separate parts, together with a self-loading pistol, in the bag. It was a 12inch long double-barrelled shotgun.

Long told the man he was going to Warrington, Cheshire, and the man told him he needed to catch a different bus. Long then got off and got onto another bus and the witness, who at this point had met up with a friend, followed the bus in his car and called the police.

Officers from Cheshire police saw Long get off the bus at Church Street, Warrington, and arrested him as he attempted to run off.

They found the shotgun, a self-loading pistol, shotgun cartridges and bullets in the bag.

Long later told officers he found two guns on a canal bank and was showing his girlfriend when it went off in his hand.

Senior Investigating Officer Vinny Chadwick said: "It is only down to good fortune that the victim is alive today.

"Long may not have set out that day to deliberately shoot his girlfriend, but the fact he had a mini-arsenal of weapons and ammunition at his disposal proves that he is a dangerous individual."

(PR/GK)