From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GUNS THEFT Pc TOLD TO EXPECT JAIL 131634 JUN 00 By Chris Marritt, PA News A police officer who gave away a pistol handed in during a guns amnesty following the Dunblane School massacre was today convicted of theft and told to expect a jail sentence. Desmond Pearson was found guilty at Hull Crown Court of the theft of the .22 semi-automatic pistol. The jury of five men and seven women also found Pearson, a constable with South Yorkshire Police, guilty of stealing two other guns, three charges of possessing a firearm without a certificate, one charge of stealing cash and one charge of false accounting. Pearson was cleared on three counts of theft of cash, and two of false accounting. Adjourning sentence for reports, Judge Robert Moore said: "It seems to me that as a matter of principle, there is bound to be a custodial sentence but after that it is a question of argument and consideration. "As custody is to be considered, he must get his affairs in order so that if that is the decision of the court it does not come as a shock." Pearson, 53, of Rossington, Doncaster, was given the gun in March 1997 by Arthur Barkhouse. Pearson later contacted Mr Barkhouse asking if he could sell the pistol to a gun club. Instead, Pearson, who was the district firearms licensing officer for the Doncaster area, gave the gun to a man called Ali Jaffery. The trial was adjourned for sentencing on July 28 at Sheffield Crown Court. Kenneth Pantling Nock's Grim Truth - In proportion as you give the State power to do things for you, you give it power to do things to you; and the State invariably makes as little as it can of the one power and as much as it can of the other. -------[Cybershooters contacts]-------- Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
