Man who shot policewoman is jailed

A MAN who shot an off-duty policewoman was jailed for a year today – after earlier escaping a prison sentence for the crime.

Peter King, aged 28, was originally given probation after wounding Chief Inspector Alison Kennedy with an airgun pellet while she was on a bike ride with her husband.

But a judge has now ended the non-custodial disposal after King breached the three-year order.

Lord Mackay told the former Jehovah's Witness at the High Court in Edinburgh: "It is quite clear to me that you have failed to respect that order." The judge said there was no alternative to a prison sentence.

He pointed out that King had admitted a serious offence when he appeared in court in 2006 and could have been jailed for it.

Lord Mackay said he had given him the chance of probation because of evidence about his health and information he was moving to Edinburgh to make "a new start" and go to college.

King, of Morrison Street, Edinburgh, failed to attend probation meetings and the judge said it was connected to his "chaotic lifestyle".

He previously admitted recklessly discharging a firearm resulting in 47-year-old Mrs Kennedy being struck on the leg by a pellet on the B945 Tayport to St Michaels Road, in Fife, on June 18 in 2005.

The victim at first thought she had been hit by a stone but a metal pellet was found embedded in a two inch wound.

Mrs Kennedy and her husband had been aware of a car approaching with two men in it when they were out on their bikes.

Advocate depute Brian McConnachie QC said: "As the car passed by she heard a noise she described as a cracking sound and she felt pain in her right middle thigh."

The vehicle was traced after a workman noted part of its registration number. King, formerly of Kincaple, near St Andrews, had been firing a pistol out of a window of the car driven by a friend.

Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe told Lord Mackay that King would "do absolutely anything" to avoid going to jail following the probation breach.