Girl fatally shot 'by accident'

Rachel Davies had a "fighting spirit", her parents said

The death of a teenage girl shot in the eye by a "faulty" air rifle was an accident, a coroner has ruled.

Rachel Davies, 18, woke up seconds before the pellet hit her eyeball after she had been sleeping at her friend's flat in Bury, Greater Manchester.

It lodged in her brain and she died two weeks later in December 2008.

Speaking after the inquest at Rochdale Coroner's Court, the man who last held the gun before it fired said her death would stay with him for life.

Stephen Hodgson had been putting the air rifle down, which belonged to his friend David McKeon, when it fired a pellet that went straight through Miss Davies' eye.

Mr McKeon, 27, told Rochdale Coroner's Court that he "didn't have a clue it was loaded".

He said: "She didn't scream. I could see blood coming out of her eye and I tried wiping it and we phoned the ambulance."

The public perception of such weapons is that they are not dangerous; well we disagree and what happened to our eldest is proof of this Angela and Ricky Davies, parents

The .22 in air rifle, that Mr McKeon had bought from his friend Clint Kirkham for £60, had been left in the room where Miss Davies was sleeping.

It was then his friend, Mr Hodgson, had entered the room and asked if he could look at the weapon.

Mr McKeon told the court his friend had looked through the sight of the gun and as he put it down it went off.

"I heard a bang, swore and said what have I done?"

Forensic scientist Andrew Skae told the court he tested the rifle and found it was faulty.

It was prone to firing without the trigger being pulled, he said.

'No warning'

Mr Hodgson said after the hearing: "I just have to live with it. It's had a devastating effect on Rachel's family, but also on my girlfriend, my children and myself.

"If one person decides not to pick up an air weapon after this then I can at least say something positive has come out of this tragedy.

"In my case I picked up the air-rifle and looked at it and it went off in my hand, without even touching the trigger. There was no warning whatsoever."

All three men were previously cleared of firearms charges in relation to the death.

Ms Davies' parents, Angela and Ricky Davies, described her as an "attractive, intelligent and gutsy young woman".

Speaking after the verdict, they said it was finally the end of a "lengthy and difficult process".

They also said they did not believe for a "minute" that Mr Hodgson had willingly caused the death of their eldest daughter.

Wild West

"However, it does not change where we are as a family in learning to live with the space that she has left," they said.

"The energy and optimism that Rachel showed in her brief time has helped us to keep going and live life in the same way through these difficult last months.

"We have tried to stay positive through all of this and have recalled many times her fighting spirit to inspire us through the inevitable low points of loss and despair."

They questioned why anybody would own such a weapon, saying "we do not live in the Wild West... neither do we need to hunt our own food".

"The public perception of such weapons is that they are not dangerous; well we disagree and what happened to our eldest is proof of this," they added.