Teenager shoots dad with crossbow in row over plate of pasta

A court heard Jaspal Singh 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 yesterday but the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his plea of guilty to unlawful wounding.

Leeds Crown Court was told the teenager was heavily drunk when he discharged the weapon on May 29, this year.

Nigel Wray, prosecuting, said his mother had made pasta for the evening meal and her son came downstairs to collect it. Mr Wray said an argument began when the teenager insisted his father should eat more than he had done. During the row he punched his mother in the back before returning to his room.

Mr Wray said the teenager entered his parents’ bedroom two hours later and discharged the bolt from the crossbow. The prosecutor said the Crown accepted the basis of his plea that the bolt was discharged recklessly, not deliberately.

Mr Marwaha was taken to hospital but survived after the bolt missed his vital organs. He went home two days after the attack.

Police arrested the teenager at his home in Harehills Avenue, Chapeltown. His speech appeared to be rambling and incoherent and he complained about concentration camps and being treated inhumanely by Nazis.

Mr Justice Keith adjourned the case for reports and remanded Marwaha in custody, saying he wanted to know more about his “unhealthy interest in weapons”.

Kama Melly, mitigating, said her client had achieved good GCSEs, but had not worked or continued his education. He had developed an interest in weapons in 2011 when he was taken clay pigeon shooting.