AN airgun-wielding housemate shot a teenager three times in a midnight street confrontation, a jury heard.

Surgeons had to cut one pellet out of the 17-year-old's face, alleged Chris Smith, prosecuting, at York Crown Court.

Christopher Richard Egas-Kitchener also shot the teenager on the hand and leg, the barrister told the court.

Giving evidence, the youth alleged that the gunman, who he did not identify in court, pulled his weapon out from his clothing without warning on Sixth Avenue as the teenager and his friends were walking home early on February 24.

"It appeared loaded," he told York Crown Court.

The youth said the gunman waved the weapon and pointed it at him and another man.

"I was shocked. I didn't know what to think. I was thinking was it real or not," alleged the youth, who claimed that he stepped back until he was six metres away from the gunman.

He said the gunman then fired the gun, which hit him in the hand. The youth claimed he ran towards the gunman in an attempt to disarm him. But the gunman fired twice more, hitting him once on the face and once on the thigh. The gunman then ran away, pursued by the youth's group.

Egas-Kitchener, 23, of Harcourt Street, York, denies possessing a firearm with intent to make the youth fear unlawful violence and wounding the youth.

Opening the prosecution, Mr Smith alleged Egas-Kitchener's housemate, Colin Butler, had been in a fight with Simon Flintoff, one of the youth's group, in Harcourt Street that evening.

Egas-Kitchener, who either saw or came across the aftermath of the fight, got an air pistol that fired ball bearings. "He left the house to go to speak with or deal with the group that Mr Flintoff was with," alleged Mr Smith.

The youth alleged he and his friends had spent the evening at a working men's club until 11pm. After they left, they were in Harcourt Street when Mr Flintoff was involved in a fight.

The youth said he steered clear of the fight and went to a nearby fish and chip shop before all the group walked through Glen Park to Sixth Avenue.

There "a lad" arrived and shouted in an unfriendly way at them. The youth claimed he asked the "lad" for a light, as a peaceful gesture. He denied being aggressive towards him.

Responding to cross-examination, the youth alleged he did not want to get into trouble because he had been handed a referral order and a £475 fine for unlawful violence and assault at a youth court a few days earlier.

The trial continues.