Deputy head fired air rifle at pupil after the lad ran around jokingly saying ‘shoot me’
A DEPUTY head fired an air rifle at a pupil after the boy ran around, joking: “Shoot me.”
The lad, 11, asked Simon Gitlin what “it would be like to be shot”, a court heard.
He replied “it would bloody hurt” before firing plastic bullets, hitting the lad at least twice from ten metres away.
The victim suffered injuries to his arms, legs and stomach and ran off “extremely upset”.
Gitlin, 51, wept as he said the “momentary lapse of judgment” had left his 30-year career in ruins.
He has resigned from the £12,000-a-year prep school in Cheshire, which cannot be named. Stockport magistrates heard Gitlin had been supervising an after-school shooting club.
He admitted that he should not have fired, and “didn’t know how hard it was going to shoot”.
Rob Lassey, defending, said: “He has apologised in writing to the parents on a number of occasions.”
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He said Gitlin was going through an acrimonious divorce from his wife of 17 years, adding: “He didn’t seek help at the time and let it bottle up inside him — a pressure cooker of circumstances.”
Gitlin admitted assault. He must do 200 hours’ unpaid work and pay £125 compensation and £85 costs.
JPs told him: “You were in a position of trust. It’s clear that it was a stupid mistake which has had tremendous consequences for you from a work and domestic point of view.”
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