88 YR Old terrorised by Yobs but he gets sent to jail for having an Antique gun in his car

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Location
London England
I know we have strict gun laws in this country, but for all that's holy, what on earth was a judge thinking when he sent an 88 year old sick man who has never been in trouble with the police in his life ..to prison for 2 years for carrying a 124 year old antique gun in his car which he used for killing rats on his allotment. A gun to which he had a licence to use and which he'd owned for 50 years.

Yes perhaps he'd had enough of those yobs who'd vandalised his property and had kicked a kitten to death..., and maybe it was meant to scare them, but he didn't use it on them, he didn't even threaten them with it, instead he approached the police to make a complaint about the yobs and they arrested him after seeing the gun in plain view in his car.

Of course no-one should be allowed to run around with guns freely in the UK...but for gawds sake, this is just beyond belief. Talk about over reaction by the law!! A caution and even a removal of his gun licence would have been more than enough...but imprison him?...I really think this countrys' laws have gone completely nuts:mad:


http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/595284/pensioner-terrorised-yobs-two-years-jail-having-loaded-antique-shotgun


 

As hard as it may seem if the man held a shotgun licence he would have known that it is illegal to posses a loaded shotgun in public.

The judge was acting within the law, whether a person is 88 years old or 28 years old the law is what it is.
 
I already said that bee...but I think that as he has always been a law abiding citizen..and he never threatened anyone with the gun, the fact he's 88 years old,...a caution and removal of his gun and his licence and even if necessary a probation would have been plenty punishment enough. What purpose does it serve to have an 88 year old man who hasn't committed a serious crime locked up in our already overcrowded prisons

God alone knows there are much worse crimes being committed here all the time where the perpetrators gets off with no jail time.
 

Certainly the judge could have used a little more discretion in dealing with this case rather than a reduced sentence...
 
​Why should a persons age be taken into account when the law has been broken regarding carrying a loaded shotgun.
 
Just in the course of these 5 posts you can see the spread of feelings about gun control laws - now perhaps you can get an inkling of what it's like here in the U.S.
 
A couple of comments from elsewhere.......

I don't think there was any room for manoeuvre in this case. The police had to act and the court had to give the sentence required under law. It's just a thousand pities the gun was loaded when found. If it hadn't been, then I don't think we'd even know about this. What mystifies me is that the family are now astounded by the outcome; they shouldn't be if their legal team had done their homework.

And this one.....

When you apply for and are granted a shotgun licence, you sign to say you are aware of what you must do and don'ts and are warned about the consequences of failure. Therefore is no excuse for carrying a loaded gun in a public place. Mr Delph held a shotgun licence. The law on guns has been amended since Hungerford and Dunblane, to name the more well known incidents. The minimum sentence prescribed in law for this offence is 2 years custody, it is 5 years if a shotgun licence is not held. The Judge has no options other than to impose 2 years custody.
 
This from the criminal law blog...

Whatever the charge, it seems to have been accepted by the Judge that Mr Delph “did not discharge [the gun] on this occasion and did not intend to cause fear of violence” and, by implication, did not intend to harm anyone with it.
In light of all of that, if this was actually a case that attracted the mandatory, it was clearly right that there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ on any sensible view of the law. Whether that finding is actually legally correct on the caselaw is unclear, but we would hope that there is no question of an Attorney-General’s Reference here.
But was it necessary to send him to prison? I would question that – when you have an 88 year old who has never been in trouble before, there are surely other ways of dealing with it other than an immediate custodial sentence.
It’s a contentious area, but it seems to me that had the police taken away his firearms and the firearms licence, then a suspended sentence would have been a perfectly good way of dealing with this.


http://ukcriminallawblog.com/roy-delph-88-year-old-jailed-for-antique-shotgun/
 
Sometimes the law is not black and white…that's why we have judges. Did the judge order a medical evaluation to see if the 88 yr old man was still competent to have a license to carry a firearm? As everyone knows, there are age related disorders like dementia and alzheimers that factor into our ability to remember the rules in life.

So, yes, his age matters. If the man had any level of mental deterioration, the judge could rule "not guilty" on the basis of the medical report and just revoke his firearm license and tell him to get a box of De-Con for his rats…poor guy. Let's be fair.
 
We will have to agree to disagree on this one, because we both think we are right.

There are times though when I get tired of the age card being played.
 
I didn't get a very good look at the weapon but it appears to not be a shotgun at all. It must be a rifle and in the story they refer to bullets which shotguns do not use. I do not necessarily blame the police but I blame hell out of the judge who used absolutely no moral standards in this case and I agree, age most certainly should have been taken into account. This is a grave miscarriage of justice.
 
Urban Dictionary: yob

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yob



Urban Dictionary


yob. The antithesis of what a good boy should be - rude, obnoxious, violent and stupid. Formed by spelling 'boy' backwards, it was coined in England in the 18th century as it was very popular amongst upperclasses to speak backwards at the time.
..........................

I wondered myself. So I typed it at top of the screen and this is what came out. Maybe this is it what was meant.
 
AZ Jim said:
I didn't get a very good look at the weapon but it appears to not be a shotgun at all. It must be a rifle and in the story they refer to bullets which shotguns do not use. I do not necessarily blame the police but I blame hell out of the judge who used absolutely no moral standards in this case and I agree, age most certainly should have been taken into account. This is a grave miscarriage of justice.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more Jim..
 
Would it have been a miscarriage of justice or an uproar if it was a 28 year old man jailed under the same circumstances.

The judge in my opinion did right by the law.

The age card is played too often for sympathy.

My last word on the subject.
 
Bee said:
Would it have been a miscarriage of justice or an uproar if it was a 28 year old man jailed under the same circumstances.

The judge in my opinion did right by the law.

The age card is played too often for sympathy.

My last word on the subject.
Click to expand...

A 28 year old without a disabled wife he cares for would have a lot better chance in Jail than a man his age would. I don't understand your lack of empathy but you have to live with it, I don't. The judge had a chance to exercise common sense and did not.
 
this reminds me-

My good friend, retired police detective told me about when he was a cop, a man in the town was a bit confused in his mind and would sometimes do strange things.

The man used to be an actor and had some costumes in his possesion. One day he dressed in a safari out fit and took a rifle out on the town.

His wife called the police and my friend found the guy walking down a street w/ the rifle.
My friend addressed him by name & asked him where he was going.

The man said he was going on safari. My friend asked if the rifle was registered, the man was surprised and said it wasn't.

My friend offered the guy a ride down to the police station to register the rifle and the man happliy got into the cruiser.

My friend took him straight to the local hospital and dropped him off in the care of the hospital staff.
 
I would hope that each individual in this position would be judged by their competence and not their age.
 
Butterfly said:
In my experience, some at age 28 are more competent than others, too.
Click to expand...
That's true. And that's why judges have ruled some young men as "Not Guilty for reasons of insanity" after mental evaluations or they deem them "incompetent to stand trial". But, as far as I know the judge never ordered an evaluation on the 88 yr. old who deserved it.
 
I think the sentence was too harsh, antique gun, 88 yr. old who has never been in trouble before, such a shame. Did the cops care about or do anything about those young punks who were terrorizing him and killing his pets? Guess they have their priorities. :rolleyes:
 

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