A MAN accused of pointing an imitation firearm at two children has been found not guilty of threatening to kill them.

Tommy Addison, 18, of Nant Y Dderwen in Drefach, was on trial this week at Swansea Crown Court charged with four offences.

It was alleged that Addison threatened to kill the two children – a boy and a girl – on March 26 in the Drefach area.

He was further accused of having an imitation firearm – a BB gun – which he was alleged to have used to make the children believe that violence would be used against them.

After just over three hours of deliberations, the jury found Addison not guilty of the threats to kill charges.

The jury informed the court that it was not able to come to a decision on the remaining charges.

Judge Geraint Walters thanked the jury for their efforts and discharged them.

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During the trial, prosecutor Georgia Donohue told the jury that two six-year-old children were walking past Addison’s house when they saw him in the window pointing a gun at them.

She alleged that Addison told the children: “If you tell anyone, I’ll shoot you”.

“There must be the obvious implication that that is a threat to kill,” Ms Donohue said.

“They immediately reported what happened to them to [one of the children’s] mother.

“The police attended only two hours later. They found an imitation firearm in the defendant’s bedside table.

“How would the children have known that the defendant had a BB gun in his bedroom?”

Initially Addison told the police that he wasn’t at home at the time of the allegations, however he later accepted he was there, but still maintained that they were “false allegations”.

David Singh, defending, said there was “no love lost” between Addison and one of the children’s mums.

“You know that there have been previous allegations made and there is clearly bad feeling between Mr Addison and [the mum],” he told the jury.

Mr Singh said that one of the children described seeing “a bullet”, and that their description did not match the BB gun. He added that the gun was not functional, so could not have fired any pellets.

“You’ve heard no direct evidence from the children there was a threat to kill,” he said.

“At no stage does [either child] actually say those words.

“To infer that’s what Mr Addison meant, you may consider that’s a step too far.”

Following the verdict, the prosecution were given seven days to consider whether they wanted a retrial on the firearm offences. In the meantime, Addison was remanded back in to custody.