A teenage girl, shot in the face with an air pistol, was lucky to escape being blinded, a jury has been told.
The pellet passed through her sinuses close to her eye, lodging in a gap in her skull, prosecutor Michael Bosomworth told Teesside Crown Court.
On trial is a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The boy, 14 at the time of the incident in May, has denied wounding the girl, aged 13, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He has admitted the lesser charge of unlawful wounding.
Mr Bosomworth told the jury that the issue in the case was that of intent. It was the Crown's case, he said, that anyone firing a gun into someone else's face must have intended to cause serious harm.
The boy had already fired the gun once at another youth on a bike without causing any injury. As the girl and her friend left the scene of that incident, said Mr Bosomworth, she turned round only to be shot in the face.
At first, he said, she did not realise what had happened but as she ran home, blood was streaming from her face.
When interviewed by police, he said, the boy denied anything to do with the shooting, claiming he was at home at the time.
