When I read the headline:
Man blasts wife with shotgun after tumbling down a rabbit hole
I thought, ‘a bit of an over reaction. After all, she probably didn’t put the hole there on purpose’.
Reading on, it seems that Jon and Mandy Hudson were walking by a lakeside near near Woodbridge, Suffolk, when Jon stumbled down a rabbit hole. The gun apparently went off and he ended up shooting his wife in the ankle. Obviously not a murder attempt, then.
Mr Hudson works for Ipswich Borough Council as well as running the lakes with his wife and, on this occasion, he was on a routine patrol with his double-barrelled shotgun to kill fish predators such as rats and mink.
Stumbling down the rabbit hole, it is thought that the gun snapped shut and went off as a result of the impact with the ground. It is also thought that the impact might have been enough to make the gun go off even with the safety catch on.
Mr Hudson was described by the bailiff of the fishery as a conscientious man and very safe with a gun, always walking around the with the gun cocked open over his right arm and the safety catch on.
Perhaps not as conscientious and safe as he’s made out to be. If he had the gun broken open and over his arm, there certainly should not have been cartridges in the chambers.