(NewsCore) – A British man blasted off his own finger with a shotgun to remove a wart that would not clear up with ointments and creams.
Sean Murphy, from Doncaster in northern England, got rid of the blemish that had bothered him for more than five years, along with most of his finger, the Doncaster Star reported.
The 38-year-old security guard, who does not regret his extreme method of wart removal, avoided being jailed for illegal possession of a firearm at Doncaster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Murphy, who was given a suspended 16-week prison sentence, said, “I’m happy with that. I know I could have gone to jail for up to 15 years for a firearms offense. My solicitor did a very good job.”
He added, “The best thing is that the wart has gone. It was giving me [a] lot of trouble.”
Murphy said the only reason he shot off most of his finger along with the thumbnail-sized wart in March was because of the weapon’s recoil.
“I didn’t expect to lose my finger as well when I shot it, but the gun recoiled, and that was it,” he said. “The wart was gone, and so was most of my finger. There was nothing left so no chance to re-attach it.”
Murphy told the court that he found the shotgun in a hedge in the town earlier in the year. He pleaded guilty to theft of the shotgun by finding and possessing it without a valid firearms certificate.
Richard Haigh, defending, said that Murphy was “a victim of his own stupidity when domestic pressures got to him.”
Murphy was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid community work and pay costs of £100 ($161).
