A teenage boy was jailed for two years at Manchester Crown Court today for accidentally shooting dead his sister with an illegal handgun that his mother was keeping for a boyfriend.

Kasha Peniston, now 17, had retrieved the .38 snub-nosed revolver from its hiding place in the back garden of the family home in Gorton, Greater Manchester, while his mother was attending a funeral in London.

He was playing around with the weapon in the pocket of his hooded jacket while his three sisters, Kamilah, 12, and Keira and Kwamaela, seven-year-old twins, were watching television and eating a snack.

He pulled the trigger in what he thought was no more than a game, believing the cylinder to be open and therefore disabled. The gun fired at almost point-blank range hitting Kamilah, a bright schoolgirl, in the middle of the forehead.

His mother, Natasha, 33, wept in the dock as she was jailed for three years for giving into the request of her boyfriend, described as a serious criminal, to keep the weapon for him.

Police moved yesterday to arrest the gun’s owner, who cannot be identified for legal reasons. It is known that Natasha Peniston, who has made a full statement to police, has been threatened, and goes to prison fearing for the safety of her family.

She listened tearfully, her head resting on her son’s shoulder in the dock, as Paul Reid, QC, for the prosecution, told the court how the man with whom she had had an “on-off” relationship had given her the gun to look after for him.

She had buried it wrapped in a plastic bag in the garden and, for some reason that she could not explain to police, told her son where it was.

Early on the morning of April 30 this year she travelled to London for the funeral of a murdered friend, leaving her son in charge of his sisters.

He later told police that he had been messing around with the weapon in the pocket of his hooded jacket. He believed that the cylinder containing the ammunition was open, and that he could therefore pull the trigger safely.

What he did not know was that the cylinder had snapped back into place, perhaps by the pull of the fabric around it, so that when the trigger was pulled, the gun fired.

The judge observed a scene “just like a child playing with a toy gun” as Kasha Peniston pointed the weapon with the muzzle close to or even touching the girl’s head.

Times Recommends

• Computer warriors pay for far-away mercenaries
• Divorce rate falls to 26-year low
• Boris adviser says Olympians tainted with blood