Man who ordered guns on internet is spared prison
AUTOMATIC PISTOLS WERE POTENTIALLY LETHAL
A MAN who ordered potentially lethal firearms over the internet has walked free from court.
David Johnson, 39, used his own email address to order three Zoracki automatic pistols in May last year. They were due to be sent to his father-in-law’s address.
But they were intercepted by Border Force officers, Hull Crown Court heard. Had Johnson received the weapons he would have been facing a minimum sentence of five years, a judge told him.
But Johnson, of 24th Avenue, north Hull, admitted the lesser offence of attempting to purchase or acquire prohibited weapons. He did so on a basis that he thought they were legal in this country, and he was interested in them as “blank firing pistols or as ornamental items”.
The barrels had been blocked with metal pegs, but a firearms expert said it would have been “very simple” to remove the blockage with only a screwdriver and modify the blank cartridges to fire a projectile.
Sentencing Johnson on Tuesday, Judge Paul Watson QC said: “It’s right and important I note that the energy of such a discharged projectile, even if attached to a blank cartridge, would be far less than would be produced by the firing of conventional ammunition, bulleted ammunition, from such a gun.
“Nevertheless, [the expert] points out the energy would be sufficient to be of lethal potential.”
The pistols were also capable of being fired on fully automatic mode “without repeated pressure on the trigger”, the court heard.
Johnson had “checked with the manufacturers” the weapons were legal in the UK and was told they were. The pistols were sent in a “plastic case with an instruction manual”. The packaging also said “Home Office”, encouraging the purchaser to think they were legal.
The judge told Johnson: “Having taken a few days to consider this case with some care while you have been remanded in custody, I have come to the conclusion that it is proper to accept your basis of plea and sentence you on the basis that these items were not in any way intended to fall into the hands of those who would use them for criminal purposes.”
Christopher Dunn, for Johnson, had provided the court with a series of positive references on his behalf, including one from a former police officer, and another from his wife Kirsty, which the judge called “particularly impressive”.
The judge said of his wife’s correspondence: “It is clear from the letter you are, other than the fact you now find yourself in the dock, an otherwise hard-working, dedicated family man who does a great deal of good, not only for your family but for the wider community.”
Johnson was sentenced to 18 months in jail, suspended for two years. He was also made subject to an electronically monitored curfew for six months between the hours of 9pm and 6.30am.