12 months for Leeds teen who fired crossbow at dad in pasta row

A court heard Jaspal Singh Marwaha, 18, is now likely be released immediately from a young offenders institution on licence as he has already served more than half the sentence on remand. Marwaha, 18, fired the weapon at his father Surinder as he lay in bed with his wife at the family home in Leeds.

Mr Marwaha managed to pull the metal bolt, which had travelled at 140mph, from his chest and escaped serious injury after it missed vital organs.

His son was due to go on trial for attempted murder last month but the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his plea of guilty to unlawful wounding.The CPS accepted Marwaha’s basis of plea that the row was not connected to the shooting incident, which he claimed happened accidentally after he tripped while carrying out “target practice”

Sentencing Marwaha yesterday, Mr Justice Keith said: “It is difficult to think of anything more dangerous than using a lethal weapon like a cross bow in a confined area like your own home.

“I appreciate that you say that you were using it at the time only for target practice and the bolt was only released when you tripped. But what happened to your father is precisely the reason why you should not have been doing what you did.”

Leeds Crown Court heard the teenager was heavily drunk when he discharged the weapon as his parents lay in bed on May 29 this year. His mother had made pasta for the evening meal and her son came downstairs to collect it.

An argument began when the teenager insisted his father should eat more of the meal than he had done. The teenager entered his parents’ bedroom two hours later and discharged the bolt from the crossbow.

Mr Marwaha was taken to hospital but survived after the bolt missed vital organs. Police arrested the teenager at his home in Harehills Avenue, Chapeltown, and his speech appeared to be rambling and incoherent. He complained to officers about concentration camps and being treated inhumanely by Nazis.

The judge added: “You have what many people might regard as an unhealthy interest in weapons.”