Bored youths in Silver End regularly used the village park for gun games, a court has heard.
Last summer when the park shut at 8pm, teenagers would sneak through a gap in the hedge and congregate in groups.
Those with air pistols would fire pellets at each others' legs just for fun, Witham Youth Court was told.
A 15 year-old boy was cleared on Wednesday, after a two-day trial, of having a loaded air weapon in public and causing actual bodily harm to a 19-year-old.
The alleged victim claimed that the accused came into the park as it was getting dark at about 9pm and shouted: " Shall I shoot... (him)." There was a hail of bullets towards him and his friends during the alleged incident in August last year.
The 19-year said he was hit in both legs, the chest, the back, one hand and the head as he tried to calm the enraged 15-year-old.
He allowed the magistrates to feel a lump in a finger of his left hand where one of the pellets from a gas powered pistol was still lodged under the skin.
The injured youth went home and decided not to report the incident because of the time and trouble it would cause, he said.
When his finger was treated in hospital, he told the nurse he shot himself accidentally. But he changed his mind later and called the police.
The youth denied a suggestion by Hugh Blake-James, defending, that he lived in a fantasy world, and often played war games with his friends, shooting air guns at each other.
In fact, the gun belonged to him, and he had tried to sell it for £50 to a friend of the accused that evening, said Mr Blake-James.
Summing up the evidence Mr Blake-James said the teenagers went into the park and played war games. "They fired at legs like playing paintball games.
"It was exciting. They didn't expect to be injured too badly, just bruised when struck through their clothing."
A 16-year-old witness said: ''Lots of boys have guns. They gang up in the park and play shooting."
Chairman of the magistrates John Jones said the whole case hinged on the credibility of witnesses and there were inconsistencies with the evidence.
Published Thursday, January 16, 2003
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