A young gunman who shot a girl in the head while dancing wildly at a party and waving the weapon in the air was jailed for eight years yesterday.

Wayne Bryan, 20, told police that he had never seen the gun before and had found it in a bag. He thought it would be “cool” to pose with it. He insisted that it had gone off accidentally.

However, detectives later found an image on his phone that showed his hooded figure at an earlier date holding the revolver in a menacing fashion and another image revealing his association with the West Gorton Crew, a Manchester-based gang.

Sophie Finucane, 16, was given 40 minutes to live after she was shot in June and bullet fragments lodged in her brain. She survived, but is not expected to make a full recovery.

The schoolgirl, who is recuperating with her father in West Cork, Ireland, was unconscious for ten days in intensive care and spent more than three months in hospital. She is still unable to walk, cannot use her right arm, has impaired vision and suffers seizures.

Manchester Crown Court was told that Bryan and Sophie had known each other since they were children and were close friends. On the night she was shot, Sophie had been excited about buying a prom dress when the pair had gone back to her home in Gorton, Manchester, with friends for a sleepover after a night out.

Some of those present had gone home or retreated to bed in the early hours when Bryan later claimed he had found the gun in the bag. Adrian Farrow, for the prosecution, said: “He took it out and began to dance around with it. He was drunk and had been smoking cannabis all day. He was waving his arms around. He described the feeling of holding the gun as being ‘good’ because it was a gun.”

Sophie was blasted in the left side of her brain and her family was told to expect the worst. Bryan, who has a long criminal record, immediately fled but later handed himself in to police. Police believe that he used the intervening time to get rid of the gun.

At an earlier hearing, Bryan, who is unemployed, admitted charges of reckless wounding, possessing a firearm and other firearms offences.

John Finucane, Sophie’s father, told the court in a statement: “I feel sad my only child will miss out on the three fundamental things in life; work, marriage and children. But that said, thank the Lord she is with us today.”

After the hearing Andy Tattersall, the senior investigating officer, said that Bryan had always denied shooting Sophie deliberately.

“Whether or not this truly was an accident only he will know. What we do know is that Bryan is a dangerous offender who has perpetually lied to police in order to evade responsibility for his actions. Bryan told us he had never seen a gun before but we recovered a picture which clearly shows this isn’t the case. He is a dangerous man and I am delighted he will be behind bars for a long time. It is only by the grace of God he wasn’t the subject of a murder investigation.”

Detective Superintendent Darren Shenton, of the Greater Manchester Police organised crime unit, said: “This was a shocking incident that has devastated a completely innocent family.

“Thankfully Sophie has made a remarkable recovery and I hope in time they will all be able to move on from what has happened. Bryan’s actions demonstrate the devastating impact that guns have on our community.

— A Muslim gang member who handed in his loaded Raikal 9mm handgun at a police station, saying that God had appeared to him in a dream, was jailed for two years by Snaresbrook Crown Court. The defence said that jailing Mohammed Chowdhury, 18, of Ilford, East London, would discourage others from turning in firearms, but the judge ruled that Chowdhury had had the gun for more than a year and was prepared to use it against rivals.

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