A CHILDCARE worker was sacked after letting an "extremely violent" child fire a rifle, a disciplinary hearing was told yesterday.

James Gurie, 66, is accused of letting the boy with a "history of extreme violence" use the Remington rifle to blast tin cans.

The hearing was told how he let the youngster and a friend fire live rounds on a patio area at a residential home.

Gurie, who did not attend the hearing, was dismissed from his job for gross misconduct soon after bullet holes were discovered.

He told care home chiefs: "I misjudged and put their enthusiasm before my own common sense.

"I have removed myself from working with children in care homes because of my lapse of judgement."

Gurie is accused of bringing firearms into the residential home for children with learning difficulties and emotional and behavioural problems.

He is also accused of bringing a gas-powered pistol "which looked like a German Luger pistol" to the home in Monmouthshire.

He is alleged to have allowed the boys to take the pistol into the grounds and up a nearby mountain while he sat inside watching TV.

Presenting officer Luisa Gibbons said a boy had used the "ball bearing gun" shooting through a friend's bedroom window "to wake him up".

The Care Council For Wales heard he had 30 years experience of shooting and ran a gun range near a hotel in Hereford.

The hearing in Cardiff was told he had been taking one of the boys to the shooting range for several years to shoot clay pigeons.

He did not have permission regarding the other boy - who had only recently moved to the care home and "had a history of extreme violence and aggression".

Care home staff discovered the boys had been shooting guns in the grounds of the small isolated country home after shell casings from live ammunition were discovered on the patio.

They also found two bullet holes from ball bearings in the window of one of the boys' bedrooms at the grade II listed building.

Gurie denied watching TV while the young boys used the gas-powered pistol and said he had never allowed them to fire the weapons in the grounds without him with them.

He accepted he did not make a written risk assessment for the shooting and that he was guilty of misconduct

The hearing was told police since revoked his firearms licence.

The hearing continues.