A Swedish court on Thursday handed a hunter a one-year prison sentence for mistakenly shooting a jogger when hunting for deer in 2018.
The Helsingborg District Court found the Norwegian national guilty of causing serious bodily harm and ordered him to pay damages of 38,000 kronor ($4,100).
The court said there was insufficient evidence to support the prosecution’s charge of attempted murder or aggravated assault.
The jogger, now aged 76, was hit in the groin when out running early on November 29 near Ljungbyhed, in southern Sweden.
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The shot was fired from a distance of about 170 metres.
A clip of the shooting retrieved from the memory chip of the hunter’s thermal rifle scope was part of the evidence.
During the trial, the 48-year-old hunter said he was out to shoot wild boar that are nocturnal and believed he was firing at a roe deer.
He, however, denied any intention of harming the jogger.
He was also found guilty of violating hunting laws, including a ban against night hunting. (dpa/NAN)
