Gran terrorised after gunman blasts her home with shotgun

A gran told of her terror after a gunman opened fire at her home in broad daylight. Ross Pate fired a shotgun into her home after he had become embroiled in a ‘vendetta’ with her son.

No-one was hurt in the shooting, in which two bullets were fired. One smashed the front window of her home while the other hit the front door.

The woman was alone in the property in Rochdale at the time, in her bedroom sleeping. Pate, 41, was accompanied by two other men, Jason Charnley, 36, and Richard Powell, 40, Manchester Crown Court heard.

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The trio have all face jail sentences after pleading guilty to a firearms offence. Pate said he believed the house, on Hill Top Drive in Kirkholt, was empty at the time.

The victim only realised the enormity of what had happened in the aftermath of the shooting, which occurred at about 6pm on Sunday, March 27, 2022. "I was, and still am, in complete disbelief that somebody fired a gun into my house,” the victim said in a statement drawn up about a year-and-a-half after the incident. “You expect to read these things in the news, you don't expect it to happen to you.

"As bad as it was, and as much of a nightmare it was, I'm aware of how much worse it could have been. I was left in shock for days and utterly terrified.”

Prosecuting, Mark Kellet said: "Ross Pate was the gunman, he had attended with the two defendants. The reason for the discharge of the firearm was that a grievance between Mr Pate and her son had taken place at some point earlier."

The court heard that the gun has not been recovered. "When I think about it, this really frightens me,” the victim said.

She told of the