Man avoids conviction after shooting daughter with paintball gun

A man shot his daughter with a paintball gun because she would not tidy her room, a court has heard.

Michael Saunders, 42, appeared in the Invercargill District Court this week after pleading guilty to recklessly discharging a paintball gun.

A police summary of facts said on November 27 the man’s chickens escaped from their coop and he used a paintball gun to round them up.

He went inside with the paintball gun and told his 12-year-old girl to clean her room.

She refused and an argument broke out.

The defendant angrily fired two shots at the victim — both of which connected.

He told police he was aiming at the wall, but the shots had “obviously both got her”.

Judge Thomas Ingram said it was a “stupid” thing to do, but Saunders had kept his record clean for 14 years.

He deferred the defendant’s sentence for 12 months.

“Buy a Lotto ticket on the way home,” Judge Ingram said to the man as he left the court.

felicity.dear@odt.co.nz