Woman "encouraged her partner" to shoot neighbour's toddler to stop him crying.

A court has heard how a British woman encouraged her partner to shoot her neighbour’s toddler in the head to “shut him up”.

Eighteen-month-old Harry Studley was visiting Jordan Walters and Emma Horseman’s apartment with his mother, Amy Allen, and his older brother in July last year in Bristol when the incident occurred, MailOnline reports.

When the children began crying, it’s alleged Horseman told her partner, who was cleaning his air rifle at the time, to “shoot Harry, just to frighten him, to shut him up, shoot it at Harry”.

Walters, a father of two, thought the weapon was empty when he "aimed the gun at Harry and fired it right into [his] head", the jury was told.

"Amy immediately picked Harry up in her arms. There was blood on the sofa. Blood was gushing out of Harry's head and down Amy's arms. Harry kept losing consciousness," prosecutor Andrew Macfarlane told the court.

Harry Studely now suffers post traumatic seizures several times a day after being shot in the head https://t.co/S4YCTTna1f

— Bristol Post (@BristolPost) January 30, 2017

Harry required emergency surgery to save his life after he was rushed to hospital. The court was told it was not yet known if the young boy will make a full recovery, MailOnline reports.

"The major ongoing issue is post-traumatic seizures. He's having several a day," Macfarlane said.

The prosecutor said "the circumstances of this case are both simple and horrifying."

"Parents in a block of flats in Bristol meet up on one Friday afternoon with their children and within an hour a baby is fighting for his life on his way to hospital."

Walters, 24, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm last year, but 24-year-old Horseman denied the same charge when her trial started this week.