A teenager accused of shooting a 15-year-old boy in the face in Kesgrave sent him a video saying he would shoot him six months before the attack, a court has heard.

The four-second video was allegedly sent on Snapchat in March last year from the teenager to the victim’s phone.

In it, he said: “I will shoot you,” Ipswich Crown Court was told.

A week before the shooting - which took place on September 7 last year as the victim was walking to Kesgrave High School, where he was a pupil - the teenager allegedly sent him another Snapchat message saying: “So you’ve chosen death.”

He also allegedly sent the victim images from the TV programme Top Gear of two of the presenters holding guns.

The messages and videos were found by police experts on downloads from the victim’s social media accounts on his phone and PlayStation 4 consoles belonging to both boys following the shooting, police enquiry officer Janet Humphrey told the court.

She gave evidence about a number of calls and messages between the two boys between March and September last year, many of which related to video game invitations from the victim to his alleged attacker.

Before the court is a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, who has denied attempted murder, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing a shotgun with intent to cause fear of violence against a man who witnessed the incident.

It has been alleged that the victim was deliberately shot as he was walking to Kesgrave High School on the first day of a new term

The prosecution has claimed the defendant set out to kill the boy after planning the attack for a year.

A friend later told police that the teenager had been planning the attack for a year but he had wrongly assumed he was joking.

The court has heard that on September 7 last year the defendant took his grandfather’s double barrelled shotgun and drove to Friends Walk in Grange Farm Kesgrave in his father’s car where he allegedly lay in wait for more than an hour before shooting the victim.

In a statement read to the court on Monday (June 7), forensic consultant pathologist Dr Nat Cary - who gave evidence last week about the victim’s injuries - clarified his opinion on the direction the shot had struck the victim’s face and said it was from front to back and not the other way round.

The trial continues.