A woman who shot her neighbour in the head with an air rifle after rowing over gulls will have to wait to find out her fate.
Samantha Brown was standing just 11ft from Mary Johnson when she pulled the trigger, leaving a pellet permanently lodged in her victim’s skull just above her right eye.
The court heard Ms Johnson had accused Brown of shooting gulls with the rifle, and that the pair had then started slinging insults.
Brown previously admitted a charge of discharging the .22 calibre weapon at Ms Johnson to permanent impairment and disfigurement and danger of life.
She had been due to be sentenced at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, but a psychiatric report ordered by the sheriff has not been carried out.
Defence agent Alison Foggo stressed it was “through no fault” of her client that the report had not been produced.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence for the report to be carried out.
The court had previously heard that 47-year-old Ms Johnson had been left with hearing problems, a loss of sensation on the right side of her head and sinus difficulties after the attack.
If the pellet had gone through her eye her injuries could have been fatal.
Brown, of 122 Mansefield Estate, Tain, will return to court on October 15.
