A 20-year-old man has been ordered to do community service after being found in Lisnaskea in the early hours with an air rifle hidden in his hoodie.
Ennisikillen Magistrates Court was told on Monday that police were on mobile patrol in Lisnaskea at 4am on October 7th when they saw two males in front of the leisure centre. They got out and spoke to Glenn Boyd who was wearing a hooded top with the hood up over his head. Police proceeded to search Boyd and found that he was concealing a 4.5mm calibre multi-pump air rifle. When questioned about this by the officers, Boyd replied: “It’s only a toy.”
Boyd of Sylvan Hill in Lisnaskea was charged with possessing a firearm without a certificate, being in possession of an airgun in a public place and possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances. He appeared before the court this week for sentencing and a pre-sentence report was presented at the hearing.
When later interviewed by police about having the rifle in his possession, Boyd admitted that he was given it by a friend and had never applied for a licence for it as he didn’t believe that he needed one.
District Judge Nigel Broderick expressed concern that Boyd was concealing the article at 4am, which he described as suspicious. Defence barrister Stefan Rafferty said his client had been “looking to sell it to make a few pounds for himself” and that when detected, he had been quite frank with police.
“This was not a wilfull or deliberate act on his part to commit criminal activity,” Mr Rafferty added.
Referring to the pre-sentence report, Mr Rafferty said his client posed a medium risk of re-offending with 11 previous convictions. The judge noted that Boyd told probation in interviews that he “was bored and fed-up” and that “his life seems to lack structure”. Mr Rafferty replied that his client had been “very lethargic in his attitude” but was willing to engage.
“These are very suspicious circumstances and I’m not satisfied that I have been given the full picture here,” the judge added. He ordered Boyd to complete 100 hours of community service and also imposed a 12 month probation order.
Judge Broderick added: “I’ll not be impressed if there is any breach because you run the real risk of a custodial sentence”.
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