Katy’s car dealer jailed in UK over guns
A CAR dealer and friend of tragic socialite Katy French has been jailed for 21 years in the UK for importing blank guns and converting them to live ammunition, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
Lee Cullen, 46, originally from Coolmine in Saggart, was convicted after UK police officers stopped a car on June 23 last year and found two of the converted firearms in the boot, along with 25 rounds of live ammunition. The car’s occupants, including Cullen, Paul Firth, 44, and Sean Edwards, 36, were arrested. The three men pleaded guilty to the same offences. Cullen was jailed for 21 years, Firth for 19 years, and Edwards for 14 years. A fourth man, Laurence McCarthy, 44, has already been convicted of conspiracy to sell ammunition without the correct paperwork, and was jailed for 20 years. In March 2017 he ordered eight blank-firing Glock replica pistols which would later be converted in order to fire live ammo.
Stephen Davies, of West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘When originally arrested, Laurence McCarthy had claimed that the replica guns had been purchased for a “gangster and moll” party. In fact they were purchased in order to be re-activated and sold to criminals.
‘These four men all played a key part in this purchasing and converting of the firearms and they all have to take responsibility for the illegal actions which could have put innocent lives at risk.’
Katy was driving a Range Rover owned by Cullen on the night she took ill in 2007. She died days later.