A FARMHOUSE owner who shot and badly injured a man while he he was trying to break in to his home has been found not guilty of unlawful wounding.

Malcolm White, aged 64, injured attempted burglar Robert Richards so badly he had to have his leg amputated when he shot him outside his home at Stocking Gobbetts, Whitbourne, on October 5, 2011.

Richards and others had started to smash their way in through the front window of the house White shared with his partner Josephine Merrick when White, wielding a shotgun, appeared.

He claims he had only intended to fire a warning shot, and did not mean to hit anybody, but caught Richards in the thigh.

One of Richards' accomplices then returned fire.

Defence lawyer Brian Dean said White had freely admitted firing the shotgun - but argued that did not amount to "unreasonable force".

The full story will be in next week's Hereford Times.