Ex shot dead by 'accident'

Amie Miles was shot through the heart

A man who shot dead his teenage ex-girlfriend at her Cardiff home has been jailed for seven years.

Amie Miles, 17, was shot through the heart at her bedsit in Grangetown in July 2002.

Raymond Burrell, 25, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possessing an illegal firearm.

Miss Miles was shot after returning from her job at a social club in Pontcanna, Cardiff at 0100 BST on Thursday 18 July.

The court heard Burrell, from Butetown, had got a gun and was hiding in her flat after being chased by an armed gang who also attacked his car.

Burrell, who had been smoking cannabis, later told police the gun had been sitting on his lap, and went off when he stood up.

You took a young life so full of hope and promise for the future

Judge John Griffith Williams

After being shot, Miss Miles made a 999 call and told the operator: "I need an ambulance please."

"My chest is tight and I don't like it. I've been shot."

By the time the ambulance arrived, Burrell had fled, and was being driven to his aunt's house in Birmingham.

Miss Miles was dead on arrival at the University Hospital of Wales in the city.

Burrell handed himself into police two days later.

A post mortem examination confirmed the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the heart.

As Burrell was led away, Amie's mother Beverley, 39, shouted: "That was my daughter".

Judge John Griffith Williams QC said the death was a tragic waste.

"You took a young life so full of hope and promise for the future - you have left her family bereft.

"No sentence I pass will in their eyes undo that wrong."

The shooting took place in a Cardiff bedsit

Gary White, of Grangetown, Cardiff, was jailed for 15 months after admitting assisting an offender.

Reuben McCauley, of Butetown, Cardiff, was jailed for 12 months after also admitting assisting an offender.

Last month, Cain McKenzie,19, from Butetown, and Leroy Herbert, also 19, from St Mellons, were formally found not guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Ms Miles met Burrell after leaving school, aged 16, with eight GCSEs.

She moved out her family home in nearby Penarth and was renting the £320-a-month bedsit in Holmesdale Street.

She was working as a secretary in the daytime and a barmaid at a social club at night.