Four years for man who killed friend with airgun

A MAN who shot his friend in the heart and killed him as he fired at a target in his living room was jailed for four years today.

Michael Loran shot 32-year-old Graeme Baxter after the two men had been drinking and the grandfather-of-two decided to use an air rifle.

The 50-year-old was originally accused of murdering Mr Baxter, of Broompark View, East Calder, on April 6, by discharging a loaded air rifle at him.

But the Crown accepted his guilty plea to a reduced charge of culpable homicide.

Lord Macphail told Loran yesterday: "It was a dangerously reckless act to fire sharp-pointed pellets from a weapon with a dangerously sensitive trigger when another person was in the room." When paramedics got to Loran's home at Queens Gardens, East Calder, in West Lothian they found Mr Baxter slumped on a couch with no pulse and efforts to revive him failed.

The judge pointed out that Loran obviously knew the gun was powerful enough to penetrate hard surfaces as the walls and woodwork were peppered with pellets.

Lord Macphail told the killer: "As a result of your blameworthy conduct another human being has lost his life."

Advocate depute Alistair Brown said it appeared that when he was drinking, Loran was in the habit of pinning targets to the living room wall and shooting at them.