A man who was born deaf-blind and without speech needed hospital treatment after being shot in an air rifle attack.

Leslie Phillips, 44, was walking back from his local newsagent with his father's Sunday paper when he was shot in the stomach yesterday at about 9.15am.

His mother Ada, 81, today said she wanted the culprit to see the damage they had done to her defenceless son.

She said: ''I would really like them to see who they had hit and know what he has gone through before they did this. ''He does marvellously and is quite an agreeable and happy person.''

Despite being born with disabilities after his mother, a former nurse, was exposed to German measles while pregnant, Mr Phillips lives an independent life, catching the bus to work every day in a Teesside factory.

He was preparing to go on holiday to Spain on Friday when he was shot a few hundred yards from his home in Aldridge Road, Middlesbrough.

Although he was born blind he now has partial sight in one eye but that is failing and he has undergone four operations this year, his mother said.

''He is very independent and a clever lad,'' she added. ''He just cannot make conversation.

''Everyone around here knows him and whoever did this fired directly at him.''

Doctors have told Mrs Phillips they will leave the pellet in her son's abdomen.

Pc Andrew Overton said: ''This is a particularly nasty attack on a vulnerable person.

''Air weapons can kill, they are not toys and it is obvious whoever fired this gun knew what they were doing.''