From: Rusty�Bullethole, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Telegraph 21.7.00
Judge rules booby trap was not set up to kill
By Maurice Weaver
A PENSIONER who rigged up a booby trap gun in his garden
shed to fire a paper pellet at intruders was acquitted of
endangering life yesterday after a judge said he could have
used far more dangerous ammunition.
Judge John Wait, presiding at the trial of Leonard Fountain,
68, told the jury that, had he really wished to kill, he
could have loaded the gun with projectiles that were far more
lethal "like nails, a crossbow bolt or ball-bearings". Ordering
jurors at Derby Crown Court to clear Fountain of the charge,
the judge said: "There is no evidence to say he planned to
endanger life."
Fountain, who said he set up the booby trap because he and
his neighbours were tired of being burgled, was also cleared
by the jury of possessing home-made gunpowder and using it
for an unlawful purpose. He had denied both charges.
He was arrested last September at his home in Boylestone,
near Ashbourne, Derbys, after absent-mindedly walking into
the trap and sustaining serious leg wounds from a paper
pellet. Fountain said: "I didn't intend to harm anyone. I
didn't think paper would penetrate my trousers, never mind
my skin."
Fountain had admitted six counts of unlawfully possessing
firearms and one of possessing ammunition. He was given an
18-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and fined
L2,500.
-------
Had a burglar been caught on this man's property he would
have got 100 hours community service.
It would appear that "non criminals" who misuse firearms
are attracting proportionately far stiffer sentences than
those that have and use firearms with criminal intent.
Something needs to be done to counter this judicial
prejudice against those who own or express an "unhealthy"
interest in firearms.
In the 50's and 60's the homosexual community suffered
widely from such onerous sentencing, yet by constantly
campaigning for their rights they have virtually turned
it all around.
I'm not proposing "outing" judges for being secret
wildfowlers or deer stalkers, writing to them pointing
out how in certain cases (the cleric jailed for forgetting
to renew his license is a good example) the mere mention
of firearms, even ostensibly "legally" held, seems to act
as a sentence multiplier.
One of the few things that get you anywhere in the UK is
to complain, the Gays complained and got status. Writing
to some of the judges in these cases and asking them to
explain how they arrived at the tariff might lay a few
seeds.
Don't get me wrong we cannot condone illegal acts with
firearms, however we must try and end this "he has an
unhealthy interest in firearms" mentality amongst judges,
such conditioning is beginning to show itself as
prejudicial results in what should be straightforward
section 44 appeals.
Rusty
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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