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Boy, 3, shot in face in air rifle attack

26/ 8/2004

A SHOLVER mum has told of her horror after her three-year-old son was shot in the face with an air rifle as he played in the street outside the family home.

Margaret McCarrick, of Longfellow Crescent, was working in her job as a care assistant on Sunday morning when she received a phone call any mother would dread - telling her that her infant son Dean Pickering had been shot with an air rifle.

Dean had been sat playing outside Longfellow Flats with his eldest sister Sarah, 8, and cousins Lauren, 7, and Kaitlin, 6, at around 11.15am when the group heard a bang.

At first they didn't realise what had happened, but when Dean put his hand to his face he pulled it away covered in blood.

Margaret, 31, said: "I was heartbroken. Whoever did this is evil. He could have lost an eye or been blinded.

"I was in tears, but because of his age Dean doesn't really realise what has happened. He has coped brilliantly, considering."

Operated

Dean was taken to Oldham Hospital where doctors suspected he had been hit by a plastic BB gun round, but an X-ray revealed a metal air gun pellet had penetrated the skin just an inch-and-a-half from his right eye.

The following morning he was admitted to Booth Hall Children's Hospital in Blackley where specialist surgeons operated to remove the pellet, leaving a wound that needed four stitches to seal.

Margaret said: "The doctors were worried that it could have affected his facial expressions if it had gone any deeper. As it is he is scarred for life. The whole family is in shock."

No one knows where the gunman was hiding, but Margaret says her street is littered with coloured BB gun rounds, and she suspects the air rifle may have been fired from nearby woodland or from the Longfellow Flats.

Oldham police confirmed an investigation is ongoing.

Now Margaret worries about her family's safety constantly.

She said: "I just want to keep them in my pocket 24/7. Dean's not allowed out by himself anymore, only with adult supervision."

by James Ferguson