A north Wales man who was the first person on mainland Britain to be shot with a plastic bullet has been jailed for two years.

Steven Myers, 30, from Old Colwyn, was shot in the abdomen after police were called to a house containing two children where he was drunk, covered in blood, wielding a knife and making threats.

Police shot Myers with the baton round to end the siege

At Mold Crown Court, Judge Derek Halbert said the officer who shot him had no choice in such a dangerous situation.

Sentencing Myers, who pleaded guilty, to two years for making a threat to kill, affray and criminal damage, he said the shooting was all the defendant's fault.

The plastic bullet - or baton round - was fired by a North Wales Police officer who had been called to the incident on the town's Peulwys estate in March which had developed into a siege.

A senior officer in the force later said unemployed Myers was "lucky to be alive" after the shooting.

The gun - which fires baton rounds at 190mph - was approved for use by police forces in England and Wales last June.

The baton round was fired at Myers's stomach

Judge Halbert told him that the police had no way of knowing if the blood seen on him was his own or that of the children in the property.

Officers did not know if his girlfriend's children were in need of urgent medical attention.

He said: "They were faced with a situation where they had to get in that house urgently. This was an extremely serious incident.

"Having phoned the police and threatened to kill, you provoked a siege situation where the police had no choice whatsoever but to get into that house as quickly as possible to secure the safety of the children there.

"They did so at very considerable risk to themselves and considerable risk to you. That is your fault entirely."

Baton rounds were designed to be non-lethal

It is believed to be the first time a baton round gun had been used in the UK - outside of Northern Ireland - since it was approved last year.

North Wales Police voluntarily referred the shooting to the Police Complaints Authority and appointed a senior officer to investigate.

Meyers, now of Lyndon Road, Sharston, Wythenshaw, Manchester, could remember little of the incident and accepted that the police had no choice but to do what they had done, the court was told.

Roderick Priestly, defending, said that it was appreciated by the defendant that the police did not know the condition of the children in the house.

He said: "There is no criticism on behalf of the defendant for the course the police officers took that day.

"My client understands that the officers did what they had to do," he said.