A mother wants tougher sentences for people using imitation firearms after the man who blinded her son in one eye was jailed for three years.

Christopher Bowsher, 33, fired a pellet from a BB gun into 15-year-old Rhys Taylor's right eye in Tarragon Drive, Greater Leys, Oxford, last September, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The teenager watched on Friday as Bowsher was jailed for using the weapon described by Judge Terence Maher as "capable of causing serious injury".

After the sentence Rhys's mother, Carole Williams, said: "A 33-year-old man who has children of his own should know better than to even point a gun at a child, let alone pull the trigger.

"He has ruined my boy's life in so many ways. I am disgusted. The highest sentence they could give was five years and I think he should have got the maximum.

"Courts are trying to give longer sentences to children with guns or people hiding guns, and then what does this man get?

"If you have got a gun and carry it round, you are more likely to use it. What do you want a gun for? It's to shoot someone or something, so don't carry a gun about."

Paul Harrison, prosecuting, told the court Bowsher fired a CO2 powered Webb and Scott imitation Walther pistol, with an attached laser, after aiming into the teenager's eye on September 15.

When the youngster was taken to hospital, staff discovered a pellet lodged in his right eye near the optic nerve. Despite six days at the Radcliffe Infirmary, he lost the sight in his right eye.

He now risks losing the sight in his left eye and may need cosmetic surgery.

Judge Maher sentenced Bowsher, of Broadfields, Littlemore, to 18 months' in jail for possession of an imitation firearm and three years for causing grievous bodily harm, to run concurrently.

Judge Maher told Bowsher: "You have still got your two eyes - he hasn't."

In a victim impact statement by Rhys handed to the court, he said: "I am hoping to move house as I have nightmares and it is horrible looking outside my street. When I got shot, I thought was going to die."

Clare Fraser, defending, said the shooting was accidental and Bowsher did not realise the gun was loaded.