Gunman gets 12 years for student attack

A GUNMAN was jailed for 12 years yesterday for shooting a 19-year-old university student at close range for stopping him chatting up girls.

However, Ashley Toppin-Hector escaped serious injury because the gun was faulty and the bullet lodged in his abdomen without breaking the skin.

Both men had been with friends outside the South Beach bar in Brixton Hill when the incident happened.

Bookmaker Leslie Ammah, 23, of Stockwell, London, was found guilty of wounding with intent and having a gun with intent to endanger life following a retrial.

Old Bailey Judge Christopher Moss yesterday told him: “Happily, the serious injury that would have been expected at the firing of a gun at point-blank range, didn’t materialise.”