A teenager who shot his 15-year-old friend in the face with a shotgun in Kesgrave has had his sentence for attempted murder reduced.
Jacob Talbot-Lummis was also 15 when he took a shotgun from his grandfather’s home and shot the boy at close range on Friends Walk, Grange Farm, on the morning of September 7, 2020.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been walking to school when he was shot from less than 5ft away, a trial at Ipswich Crown Court previously heard.
Sentencing him last November, Judge Martyn Levett said the victim suffered "unimaginably serious injuries", suffered flashbacks and continued to be "reliant on his family".
Jacob Talbot-Lummis, who shot his friend in Kesgrave (Image: Suffolk police)
Talbot-Lummis, of Carol Avenue, Martlesham, was handed an extended prison term made up of 24 years in custody and five years on extended licence.
However, three senior judges at the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence for attempted murder to one of 18 years in custody with an extended five years on licence on Tuesday.
At a hearing in London, Talbot-Lummis appeared via video link to challenge the length of his sentence.
A police cordon in place following the scene of the shooting in Friends Walk, Kesgrave, in September 2020 (Image: Archant)
His barrister Diana Ellis QC said the sentence was “manifestly excessive”.
She argued that the sentencing judge had failed to properly consider the amount of mitigation the teenager had, including his youth, “dysfunctional” upbringing and the bullying he said he faced from his victim.
During the original sentencing, Judge Levett said he did not accept “there was bullying of the scale or the degree suggested”.
Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Julian Knowles and Mr Justice Cotter, said the trial judge was "in the best position to assess the evidence".
Police patrolling Kesgrave after the shooting (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)
However, he continued: "What, with respect, he did not address however was the full effect of the bullying, whatever its level, may have been on the appellant."
The senior judges said there was evidence that Talbot-Lummis had suffered from mental health difficulties, including evidence from a friend and experts.
They also said the sentencing judge should have taken Talbot-Lummis’s youth more into account and reduced the sentence further from the number of years that would have been given to an adult.
Lord Justice Holroyde said: "There was, in our view, no basis for treating the appellant as being more mature than others of his age."
Allowing the appeal, the senior judges also reduced a concurrent sentence for possession of a gun with intent to endanger life from 12 years to nine years
Ipswich Crown Court previously heard Talbot-Lummis took his father’s car to drive to Friends Walk and waited for the boy for about an hour before shooting him.
Judge Levett said that, after ambushing the victim outside his home and shooting him once, Talbot-Lummis had only refrained from shooting him a second time because the boy had fallen to the ground and was obscured by a car.
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