A JURY hearing a trial into the death of a Llyn teenager has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict.

Peter Colwell, 18, from Clynnog Fawr, was out with friends on the evening of Saturday, 4 February 2017, when he was shot at point-blank range while sitting in the back seat of a Land Rover Discovery in the car park of the Ship Inn in Llanbedrog.

On day 18 of the trial at Caernarfon Crown Court, Mr Justice Picken stopped the jury’s deliberations after more than 23 hours, after they had retired nearly a week before.

Ben Fitzsimons, 23, of Nanhoron, Pwllheli, and Ben Wilson, 29, of Ely, Cambridge, denied manslaughter through gross negligence on the Boduan estate near Pwllheli.

Ben Fitzsimons’ brother, Michael Fitzsimons, 25, also of Nanhoron, and Harry Butler, 23, of Llaniestyn, Pwllheli, were cleared of a single firearms count against them which they denied.

When he opened the prosecution case, QC Patrick Harrington said: ”The killing was neither deliberate nor malicious. But a young man died as the result of the cavalier disregard of the fundamental rules of gun safety by Ben Wilson and Ben Fitzsimons.”