A MAN shot two brothers and then killed himself after being driven to distraction by the noise of their motorcycles, it was claimed last night.

Anthony Price and Gareth Harris, aged 20 and 17, were recovering in hospital after their legs were peppered with pellets from a shotgun.

The body of their next-door neighbour Trevor Fallon, 52, was later found in a field. It is believed that he killed himself with the same weapon.

Neighbours in the village of Govilon, near Abergavenny in south Wales, said that Mr Fallon had repeatedly complained about the noise from the brothers’ scrambler motorcycle.

Mr Fallon, a caretaker at a local theatre, is believed to have hit the brothers when he fired his shotgun at the revving motorcycle over the garden fence.

One neighbour said: “There’s been bad blood between Trevor and the boys for about five years. Trevor’s been complaining about the loud noise from their motorbikes and their music.

“The brothers are rowdy. Trevor was a kind man but was at the end of his tether with these boys. We can’t believe he was trying to kill them.

“He was only seven or eight feet away when he shot at them and their motorbike. We’ve heard that he threw a suicide note into the garden before he went off to kill himself.”

Mr Fallon’s body was found with gunshot wounds to the head after armed police arrived.

John Preece, another neighbour, ran to investigate when the first shot was fired.

He said: “One of the brothers was lying on the floor. He was screaming ‘He shot me, he shot me’. We tried to calm him down and the ambulance was called.

“I was attending to the boy lying on the lawn and there was screaming from the house. I realised then that another brother had been shot and he was in the kitchen. He was in quite a bad way.”

The brothers were taken to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny where they were recovering yesterday.

Mr Fallon moved to the village from Lancashire about five years ago after getting a job as a caretaker with the Gwent Theatre, where he was known by the nickname “Hotpot”.

The theatre’s website said: “He likes Northern humour, steak puddings and working-class Lancashire girls but dislikes politics, warm beer and cheeky kids. At Gwent Theatre he enjoys the positive energy of youngsters.”

Terry Jones, 64, also a neighbour, said: “Trevor absolutely hated noise — he hated the sound of dogs barking and engines revving particularly.

“He moved to the country to get away from town noise because he said it drove him mad. He told me once that he would shoot someone if the noise carried on next door.”

The two brothers live with their parents, sister and two other brothers who were at their bedsides yesterday.

Gwent police are waiting to question them.

A spokeswoman said that they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the shootings.

Diane Harris, 46, the mother of the young injured men, said that she was “not aware” of a dispute with her neighbours over noise.

“It was just an ordinary Sunday afternoon that ended like this,” she said.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• A vicar’s wife: ‘There is no one to fight for us’
• Every little helps at the supermarket
• Ugg or Fitflop? The battle of the boots