A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".

As someone pointed out in the Speccy;

This story is getting zero coverage. I've seen more coverage from American websites than I have from UK sources. I've done a search at the Times, the Guardian and the BBC News website and – unless I'm doing something very wrong – none of them seem to be touching it. It doesn't even feature on the BBC website's local coverage for Surrey. It seems to me that this is a story in and of itself, no? I mean this is a pretty fundamental legal issue, I'd have thought, and if it isn't clarified (or changed) then it's only a matter of time before some other poor sod is going to be staring down the wrong end of a five-year minimum prison sentence for trying to do his civic duty. What, the Beeb can find bandwidth for "Two kite surfers jump over pier", "Cat tied to washing post put down" and "Schoolgirls hurt in tractor crash", but they can't find space for this?

CFH – its the law that is an ass here. Unfortunately he was in clear breach of the law as it is written with no defence that I can see.

I bet he does not get any serious sentence at all. Admonished or suspended.

I have read the story. Dunno where tho.

EDit – you are right tho – it doesn't seem to get much priority in the news

Must admit I hadn't seem this one. In someways I wish I hadn't.

One can only hope that when it comes to sentencing a complete discharge is given and he gets no record.

Unless someone thinks he's lying (and there's no such suggestion in the article you link) this is one of those occasions where the CPS really should have taken a long hard look and not charged.

I'm sure that changing the law to reliably prevent this sort of silliness while not creating a loophole allowing people to hide weapons for others would be tricky, but it simply shouldn't be in court in the first place.

Grr.

You might think that this story can't be true or that's (sic) been made-up to provoke everyone's inner Littlejohn

I larfed. 🙂

Unbelievable. There was a similar case where some dogooder type who campaigned against gun crime had a shotgun handed to her by a yoof. She was charged when she handed it in (but she had taken her time about it). No idea what the outcome was.

The CPS can, I thought, decide not to prosecute if it's not in the public interest. Could this an appropriate stance here?

I saw that a couple of days age. The police should never have arrested him, and the CPS should not have prosecuted. It does however look like the Judge's hands are tied.

As for the Spectator, it may well be that the press are having to wait until after the verdict so that the trial isn't compromised in any way.

Seems a bit wierd this, can't help but think there is more to it than meets the eye. Would you just report it to the police and let them come and fetch it or take it down to the local cop shop without making an appointment with the chief super? I know which I'd do.

It was on the Today Programme on R4 yesterday.

Seems a bit wierd this, can't help but think there is more to it than meets the eye. Would you just report it to the police and let them come and fetch it or take it down to the local cop shop without making an appointment with the chief super? I know which I'd do.

Me too. I'd hand it in.

Or I would of. I wouldn't now.

Let's just get this right. The police, the CPS, the Judge, The Prosecution and the jury have all been in possesion of all of the facts and evidence and have found him guilty, whereas everyone one else only has the convicted man's version of events but his side is being taken here ?

Confused, Devon.

Missed that, uponthedowns.

I think my interest here is threefold;
1 – A man who would be comfortable handlin a weapon took a decision to safely remove a weapon from the streets, and to personally ensure that it went to the police. Surely a good thing? OK, so maybe not to be done by everyone, but there you go. I'd be happy doing the same with a shotgun as I'm very much used to handling them. If I found an auto, not so sure. But, essentially, I think he did the right thing.

2 – How the blinking flip did this ever even get to a court, let alone sentencing? As TJ says, the law is indeed an ass in this one.

3 – Apart from the R4 reference above, this story doesn't seem to be anywhere in the press, which does seem really rather odd. I do wonder why.

Some interesting comments here:http://www.policeoracle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13301&PID=394746%5D
IIRC from the Today item yesterday he took some time to hand it in, and has previous ref firearms. Not that that is necessarily relevant…

I liked this (speculative) summary on the police forum:

Mr C somehow manages to get through to the Chief Super and tells him there's a gun in a bag at the bottom of the garden. Ch Supt says, "Why are you troubling me with this? I'll put you through to the control room and they'll get a minion out to deal with it. In the meantime, on no account should you pick it up or move it, because you will be taking possession of it unlawfully"

Mr C gets fed up with waiting for a bobby to arrive, because all available resources have been dispatched to deal with grannies speeding on mobility scooters or young people seen talking to each other on street corners. In his impatience to get rid of this nasty object, he ignores the Chief Super's advice, picks up the bag and trots down to his local nick.

Amazed not only to find that the station is open and that the Chief Supt is in his office, he manages to walk through the front office, up the stairs to the top of the ivory tower and plonks the shooter on the desk.

In order to cover up the security breach, the boss calls someone who can remember the caution into the office and suggests it might be a good idea to lock Mr C up.

Things move on apace and at the point of charge, the officer in the case has the misfortune to find a new lawyer in the CPS to give advice. This new lawyer doesn't quite know the rules of the game yet, so agrees to charge, rather than the usual answer of getting statements from the man who cast the metal to make the shotgun in the first place, as well as tracing the hacksaw used to shorten the barrel and also doing an ID parade on the black bin-liner.

Somehow, the case gets past the Mags and despite all efforts to make it go away, the whole story gets put to a jury who decide – in twenty minutes – that the prosecuting barrister has a better suit than the defending barrister, so the Crown win a case.

See – no fit-up, not ulterior motives, just an unfortunate turn of events. I should be an author!

– STAN STILL, Police Forum