A WAR games organiser who took a group of boys to his home and shot two of them with an imitation assault rifle appeared in court yesterday.

Paul McGinty, 28, shot the youngsters, aged 12 and 13, with plastic pellets from the weapon, leaving one of them bruised and cut.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the terrified youngsters were forced to climb the garden fence in a bid to flee from shots fired by the married father-of-two.

McGinty told the court the boys had asked to be shot after he said it would be a good idea for them to experience what the shots felt like if they were to take part in one of the organised games.

McGinty, of Ravenswood Square, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm on arrest and two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm when the incidents took place on April 4.

Sentencing McGinty, Judge Tim Hewitt said: "You have involved yourself in what you describe as war games.

"When the group of boys requested a demonstration of your imitation weapons you proceeded to fire them in a confined area."

McGinty was given 240 hours of community service and was ordered to forfeit an imitation rifle, an imitation machine and hand gun, an imitation rocket launcher, plastic bullets and military magazines which he kept at his home.