Pori court sentences elderly man to over three years in prison for attempted manslaughter after shotgun attack on neighbour

A man in his 70s has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for the attempted manslaughter of his neighbour in Pori, southwestern Finland, after firing a shotgun at the victim without provocation, Yle reports.

The Satakunta District Court ruled that the defendant, who shot the victim in the legs in Pori’s Kyläsaari district in April last year, acted intentionally and without legal justification. The attack followed a dispute over children playing on a trampoline on the neighbour’s property.

According to the court, the convicted man had loudly ordered the children to stop playing, prompting the victim—a father of the children—to confront him at his home. When no one answered the door, the victim’s wife told him to leave the property. As the victim walked away, the defendant fired two shotgun blasts without warning. The first shot hit the ground near the victim, while the second struck his legs, causing severe and partially permanent injuries.

The court determined the act constituted attempted manslaughter, as a shotgun blast fired from just two metres away posed a lethal threat. In addition to the prison term, the defendant was ordered to pay tens of thousands of euros in compensation to the victim and was stripped of his military rank.

The ruling is not yet final and may be appealed to a higher court. Yle has chosen not to publish the defendant’s name to protect the privacy of the victim and their family.