A VIDEO game-obsessed teen who shot his pal in the face with a shotgun then claimed he would "probably kill again" has been caged for 24 years.

The 16-year-old lay in wait for the victim, 15, as he walked to school before "calmly" blasting him from less than 5ft away.

He then jumped in his dad's car, which he stole, and fled the scene in Kesgrave, near Ipswich, as his pal lay critically injured in a pool of blood.

The victim was left with "devastating and life-changing" injuries and is "partially paralysed" from the horror on September 7 last year.

As his mum repeatedly screamed "what have you done?" at the gun fanatic, he showed her the double barrelled shotgun with a "smug and righteous" look on his face.

After he was finally arrested two hours later, he chillingly told officers: "I've done what I wanted to do, as scummy as it is."

The teen, who legally can't be named, was today jailed for 24 years with a further five years on licence after being convicted of attempted murder.

His victim's mum wept during the sentencing hearing as the court heard how the teen "ruthlessly executed" his "savage plan".

It also emerged the shooter had been playing macabre virtual reality game "Blood Trail" just hours before the brutal shooting.

The game – described by makers as the "most violent game in VR" – centres around a contract killer massacring a cult using an arsenal of weapons.

Sentencing, Judge Martyn Levett said: "The manner in which you planned and committed these offences shows me you are a dangerous offender.

“You had an obsession with all types of lethal firearms and were entrenched in watching violent video games online.”

“It was a premeditated shooting and there was an intention to kill. It was not unthinking or impulsive behaviour."

CHILLING REMARKS

At a previous hearing, the court was told he made a string of harrowing remarks while playing Jenga at a secure unit after the attack.

When asked what he would do if he left the unit, the boy replied: "Probably kill again."

He then revealed he didn't know if the victim – his friend since primary school – was dead before a worker shut down the conversation.

In another discussion, the defendant was asked what he would like to do "later in life".

He chillingly replied: "I will probably be inside until I'm 40 and I would like to be famous for chemical warfare."

The victim bravely spoke out previously, saying his career goals had been "ruined".

His dad also read a statement where he described seeing his son on the ground bleeding "missing half his face".

He added: "I genuinely believed there was no chance of survival.

"This image and the moments until the ambulance arrived will haunt me forever."

'FULL OF HATRED'

The boy's mum slammed the defendant as "evil, full of hatred" and said "our world was shattered" by the attack.

The court was told how the boy hatched the gruesome plot around a year before the shooting on September 7 last year.

On the day the schools reopened after lockdown, he "set out to kill" the boy after being subjected to a "low level" of bullying.

The game-obsessed teen then took his grandfather’s double-barrelled shotgun and drove to a quiet cul-de-sac in his dad's car.

He lay in wait for more than hour before shooting his former friend at close range in the side of his face.

The victim recalled hearing a bang and saw the gunman standing nearby looking “calm and collected and not bothered”.

HORROR SHOOTING

Horrified witnesses revealed how he stood watching the carnage with “no sense of urgency” and “appeared to have all day”.

The victim's heartbroken family rushed to the scene and desperately tried to administer first aid.

Meanwhile, the shooter put the firearm in the boot of the car and drove away in a “deliberate and non urgent” manner.

Police rounded on him two hours later and had to smash the window to get the "smiling" teenager out.

He told officers the arrest was "exciting" as armed cops bundled him into a police car.

The victim was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound "extended across his lower right face and the right front area of his neck".

Medics said "the bone and teeth of his right jaw were largely absent" and he suffered some brain damage and still requires treatment.

WEB OF LIES

Giving evidence, the defendant claimed the victim had subjected him to years of “humiliation and fear” and said he had planned to kidnap him and threaten him with a gun to teach him a lesson. 

He claimed he wanted his pal to get in the car but when he refused, he "panicked" and became "very stressed".

The boy claimed he couldn’t say exactly how the trigger came to be pulled and said he was surprised when the gun went off.

One friend told the court how the defendant told him around a year before the horror he wanted to shoot someone but he dismissed it as a fantasy.

He had practised shooting a BB gun at targets in his bedroom and on one occasion had shot him in the chest.

The boy was convicted of attempted murder and of possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger the boy's life after a trial.

He was previously cleared found not guilty of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence to a man who witnessed the shooting.

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