Now, the full details behind this bizarre incident can finally be told after a woman wrongly accused of being responsible came forward.

Mandy French, 55, was arrested over the incident and spent months on police bail as officers investigated her.

Mandy French (Image: Submitted)

She has now spoken out after the real culprit was revealed by this newspaper last week as Jason Davis, 51, a convicted paedophile who lived next to her.

Ms French described how had been "bullied" and "ostracised" by others in the village who believed she was responsible.

She also revealed how police had seized her replica antique blunderbuss, which she used as an ashtray, as they thought it might have been used in the incident - even though officers had retrieved Davis' actual gun used in the attack on the day it took place.

MARRAMS MYSTERY Ms French lives on the Marrams - the row of homes closest to the resort's erosion-threatened seafront - and was at home on May 4 last year when the beach was busy with crowds enjoying the sunny bank holiday weather.

Police with the boys outside the Beach Cafe near to the Marrams in Hemsby after the incident (Image: Submitted)

Shots were fired from an air rifle at a group of boys who were playing on the dunes near the properties.

Two 13-year-olds were hit and wounded, with one requiring hospital treatment.

Dozens of police swarmed the scene in search of the gunman and Ms French was arrested and piled into the back of an officer's car and taken in for questioning.

She was eventually released on police bail but it was three months before she was told she would face no further action.

Convicted paedophile Jason Davis (Image: Newsquest) Her neighbour, Davis, is now serving two years in prison for the shooting, as well as other unrelated offences.

His conviction in February was not publicised and Ms French said she had lived in the shadow of the shooting and had been "taunted" about it in the village.

"I just felt like I was on my own and nobody cared and nobody believed me," she said.

"It is horrible to think people believed I would do that. 

"When Jason was put in prison in February, I thought finally everybody would believe me and my name would be clear, and it would be in the papers. So when his sentencing didn’t appear, I was disappointed."

DAY OF THE SHOOTING Ms French said she had been at the library on the day of the shooting and returned in the afternoon to find Davis having a barbeque in his garden.

He told her that children had been playing on the sandy cliffs in front of their properties, and Ms French went to tell them to play elsewhere to prevent them adding to residents' erosion concerns.

The cliffs leading up to the Marrams in Hemsby (Image: Bruno Brown)A busy Hemsby beach (Image: Archant Norfolk) "I went down and had a polite go at the kids and told them to please not play there as the cliffs are threatened," she said.

She said they had refused and so she went inside to send a message to the venue where the group, who were on a rugby tour, were staying.

"I came out of my house and ended up going to Jason’s," she said. "I ate a burger he had cooked and wandered further up to see my friends.

IN THE FRAME "When I got there, I saw all the police on the beach," she added.

"I said to my friends that I couldn’t believe someone had called the police because I had a bit of a go at some children."

Ms French says she then went out of her friends' property to ask what was going on, and it was at this moment that she was arrested.

Jason Davis shot the teens from the clifftop outside his home, pictured (Image: Bruno Brown) "When I was being arrested, I genuinely didn’t believe there had been a shooting. I was in disbelief and astonishment and so confused," Ms French said.

"I had no idea that anybody had shot a gun, and to this day, I still cannot pinpoint the exact moment the monster living next door would have shot the gun."

SUSPICIONS OVER BLUNDERBUSS ASHTRAY "Officers searched my house and took a replica blunderbuss musket-type pirate's gun, which used to be an ashtray, which they have now actually returned to me," she said.

"But from the back of the car, I saw them take the air rifle from Jason's house. But he was not arrested, something I will never understand."

The replica blunderbuss gun that officers seized from Ms French but have now returned (Image: Bruno Brown) The replica blunderbuss' barrel has always been blocked (Image: Bruno Brown)Davis was not arrested until two months after the shooting and was only charged on September 15.

He appeared in court on February 21 when he was sentenced to a total of two years for possession of a firearm when prohibited and two counts of battery, in relation to the boys he had shot.

Jason Davis' home on the Marrams (Image: Bruno Brown)

He was also sentenced for two breaches of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which were unrelated to the dunes incident.

READ MORE: Neglected dog rescued from home of jailed paedophile on Norfolk coast

READ MORE: Photos show 12 months of coastal erosion at Hemsby

MONTHS OF ANGUISH Ms French, a former care assistant and former care manager at a day centre, said that before he was accused of the shooting, Davis had tried to put the blame on her.

"Jason told everybody I was crazy and did all sorts of low-level intimidation tactics to try and scare me, which was wearing me down," she said.

Mandy French (Image: Submitted) "I was so ill with anxiety. I moved here because I wanted a quiet life. My health hasn’t been great, but this house was detached in a quiet area and suited my health needs both mentally and physically. But it has not turned out that way.

"I was bullied, ostracised in the village because everyone thought it was me still. I think until the EDP story the other day [revealing Davis was the gunman] that they still did believe that.

"I couldn't walk my dog Hendrix through the village anymore, I felt so alone, but I am pleased the truth is finally out."

DAVIS' OFFENDING

Davis' criminal record stretches back decades. In 2003, the then 29-year-old was put on the sex offenders register was sentenced to 12 years in prison at Northampton Crown Court.

Convicted paedophile Jason Davis (Image: Newsquest) The court heard he had been carrying out systematic sexual abuse against three youths in Daventry and Milton Keynes over a five-year period during the 1990s.

A jury found him guilty of nine attempted rapes, eight indecent assaults and an act of gross indecency with a child between April 1994 and December 1999.

Throughout the hearing, he maintained his innocence, accusing all the youths of lying.