A MAN shot his girlfriend dead at home then told 999 she ran into a pool cue after a row, a court heard.

       Richard Basson, 45, is accused of blasting Carrie Salter in the forehead with an illegal handgun in Long Clawson, near Melton Mowbray.

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       Carrie Slater was shot dead at home Credit: PA

       He then phoned 999 where he was heard saying: "What are you going to say? You had a pole through your head".

       Jurors were told this was aimed at Carrie, 37, who died from an unsurvivable brain injury.

       Basson also claimed the pair had a row over "half a cigarette" before she came at him with a carving knife, Leicester Crown Court heard.

       Prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones KC said: "He said that she had come at him with a carving knife. He said that he had been struck and had broken his hand.

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       "He said that he had jabbed at her with a pool cue. He said that it had entered and penetrated her forehead.

       "Important parts of that account that this defendant gave in that 999 call were not true.

       "At the time of this fatal incident, Carrie had not come at him with a knife. There had, ladies and gentlemen, been no pool cue."

       The court heard Basson fured two live rounds from one of the three illegal firearms he held at the time.

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       One bullet hit a wall in the home, while the second struck Carrie in the middle of her head, Mr Lloyd-Jones said.

       She was rushed to hospital but sadly couldn't be saved and died two days later.

       A Home Office pathologist later recovered the bullet that killed her, while police found the gun and two empty cartridges in the couple's garden.

       Jurors were told Basson, who had 68 rounds of live ammunition at the property, had previously been violent towards Carrie.

       He was convicted of wounding in 2006 in relation to an incident a year earlier in which a man was stabbed, jurors heard.

       Mr Lloyd-Jones said: "He was no stranger to the use of unlawful violence. Carrie's sisters remember seeing her with bruises."

       Basson denies murder and the trial continues.