Man constructed sub-machine gun to shoot himself
ADEPRESSED man built his own sub-machine gun to commit suicide, an appeal court has heard.
Luke Reilly was jailed for two years at Birmingham Crown Court in March after he admitted having a prohibited firearm and ammunition. Gun crimes usually carry an automatic five-year jail term, but Reilly got less than that after the judge ruled his case “exceptional”.
But Reilly, of Ascot Close, Oldbury, took his case to London’s Appeal Court claiming his punishment was still too tough.
His lawyers argued that the judge “should have gone further still, and suspended the sentence”.
But Mr Justice Spencer, sitting with two other judges, ruled there was nothing “manifestly excessive” about Reilly’s jail term.
The court was told Reilly’s story began three years ago when he ploughed his car into a telegraph pole. He was badly injured in the impact, suffering post traumatic stress in the aftermath.
The “severely depressed” 29-year-old was “harbouring suicidal thoughts”, and tried an overdose which failed.
By late 2017 he had resolved to “end his own life by shooting himself ”, having decided this was the most efficient method.
“He had been a keen amateur engineer and wanted to gain some sense of technical achievement in what was intended to be his last project,” said the judge.
After intensive web research, Reilly constructed a “sub-machine style” gun plus a hoard of homemade ammo.
Reilly never successfully fired the gun, said Mr Justice Spencer, adding that experts found it challenging when testing the weapon.
The crisis came last November when Reilly headed off to Beachy Head to kill himself, the court heard. He took his gun and ammunition with him, intending to hurl them into the sea at the same time.
But he was dissuaded from suicide by two strangers and headed back home to the Midlands with his gun still in the car.
However, his landlady had grown worried about his long absence and when she looked in his room spotted wires and suspicious paraphernalia spread across the floor.
Bomb squad officers and armed police were called, sparking a street evacuation.
Reilly was arrested as he drove back through Solihull.
Mr Justice Spencer accepted the case’s unique features but such firearm offences needed to be deterred whatever the background, he said. His sentence had already been heavily discounted to reflect his troubled background.
“In our view the sentence was neither wrong in principle nor manifestly excessive,” the appeal judge ruled.