A COURT heard how a youth accidentally shot a 13-year-old boy dead on a hunting trip.

William Buffey was killed by a single round to the back of the head from a .22 rifle on February 22 last year.

Two people appeared at Leeds Crown Court on Friday on charges connected with the death.

The court heard William had gone to shoot rabbits in a disused quarry near his home at Carlton Husthwaite, near Thirsk, with another youth now aged 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Andrew Dallas, prosecuting, said the gun fired when the youth tripped over. He said: "He caught his foot on some wire or ivy, then stumbled. The gun hit the side of a tree and went off."

Judge David Bryant sentenced the youth to a six-month supervision order after he admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition without a certificate and trying to pervert the course of justice by providing false information.

The second defendant, Anthony Knowles, 67, of Barugh Farm, Carlton Husthwaite, was fined £600 after he admitted not complying with a certificate for keeping a firearm and two counts of aiding and abetting the other defendant on the firearms and ammunition charges.

Knowles was found not guilty of a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.