A TEENAGER who allegedly shot and killed a friend with an air rifle did so as a prank, a court heard yesterday.

Matthew Sheffield, 14, died after the pellet lodged in his brain during a target practice session.

A 14-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Teesside Crown Court yesterday accused of killing Matthew.

The teenager, who was 13 at the time, denies manslaughter.

David Robson QC, prosecuting, said Matthew went to the Teesside home of the defendant on April 29 last year with other boys, and the defendant and his brother took their father's air rifle from the attic, where it was stored.

The boys fired at milk bottles filled with water in the garden, he said.

Events took a tragic turn when the defendant fired the gun through an open kitchen window at Matthew.

Mr Robson said: "This defendant, thinking no doubt that it was a joke, no doubt that it would do no more than sting or stun him, pointed this gun at Matthew as he ran up the garden.

"He pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. Unhappily, it did not merely stun or sting. The bullet passed through the skull just above his eye, penetrated his skull and lodged in the brain."

There was nothing that could be done, he said.

Matthew died the following day, at Middlesbrough General Hospital, when his parents had to make the "appalling decision" to allow the life support machine to be turned off.

Mr Robson said the defendant was a decent young man, from a good family.

That he was in a crown court, charged with such a serious matter, was part of the tragedy.

Mr Robson said: "The other part of the tragedy is that Matthew Sheffield, on that Sunday afternoon last April, when he was only 14, was shot dead by this defendant."

The trial continues.