A WOMAN shot another woman in the head at point black range with an air rifle after she was confronted by her for shooting seagulls in a village square.

Mary Johnson was left covered in blood with a pellet embedded in her head after threatening to go to police over Samantha Brown's earlier actions.

Ms Johnson, 47, who believed Brown was shooting the birds, called her a cruel cow and asked: "Are you having fun, you fat b*****d?" before the other woman turned the gun on her, Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday.

The court heard Brown responded with abuse before she reloaded the air weapon, pointed it at Ms Johnson and said: "If you say that again I will f*****g shoot you!"

Ms Johnson was shot after she went outside her home after hearing pellets being fired.

She spent 14 hours in hospital, but doctors were unable to remove the the pellet from her skull after the incident in Balintore, Easter Ross.

Ms Brown, 25, of Tain, pleaded guilty in court to discharging the .22 calibre on July 5.

Ms Johnson now suffers from impaired hearing, loss of sensation on the right side of her skull and sinus problems.

Speaking at the time of the incident, she said: "I could hear the 'ping ping' and saw someone shooting the birds in the square.

"It was one of my neighbours, Sam Brown, with a gun and she was shooting the gulls. I challenged her about it and told her I was going to phone the police.

"She turned round, pointed the rifle at me and said she would shoot me instead. I asked her to put the gun down and the next thing was she shot me. "Then she said she was going to shoot me again.

"I was only five feet away from her but I didn't realise she had hit me until I put my hands up to my head and saw the blood. It was running down my face. I was like someone had set my head on fire.

"The hole in my head was just an inch above my right eye."

Had the pellet entered entered her eye and the brain, she could have died.

Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart told Sheriff David Sutherland: "Although the rifle was damaged when recovered, a ballistics expert who had a similar air rifle said it was potentially lethal, especially from close range.

Mr Urquhart said Brown was 11 feet away from Ms Johnson when she fired following the exchange of words between them.

Brown later said she had "shot Mary."

She also said to one another person present: "I didn't even aim. I just held it up like this and shot her," added Mr Urquhart.

Defending, Alison Foggo, said her client has been left "under considerable stress" as a result of this case and it has had an adverse effect on her mental health.

Brown was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next month.

As she left the court in handcuffs, she appeared in some distress and appeared disorientated. Earlier, Brown appeared to take a couple of tablets in the dock and a police offier had briefly to sit next to her.

In June, MSPs passed a law requiring airgun owners to hold a licence.

The Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Bill also places tougher regulations on pubs, strip bars, taxi firms and scrap dealers.

In 2005, two-year-old Andrew Morton, of Glasgow, was shot in the head with an airgun.