U.K.: Find discarded gun, bring it in to cops, get convicted for possession

by Walter Olson on November 19, 2009

Could such a sequence of events actually happen? It seems to have happened to Paul Clerke of Merstham, England. [ThisIsSurreyToday via Coyote]

{ 4 comments }

1 James 11.19.09 at 1:23 pm: I find it hard to believe there are many reasonably intelligent people in the UK who don’t know that gun possession is a strict liability charge. This is like a minor getting charged with alcohol possession when they just came across the alcohol and were trying to dispose of it. Everyone knows it’s a strict liability charge and that intent is irrelevant. Taking a gun into the police in the UK is just about the dumbest move I’ve heard of.

That said, surely the prosecutors have some discretion here and should obviously be focusing on more pressing matters.
2 Mark Biggar 11.19.09 at 2:28 pm: How do they define “possession” ? He found it in his yard, so they may well have arrested him even if all he did was immediately call the police. This is “Zero Tolerence” gone totally insane. The only “safe” thing he could have done is push it off his property with a stick and let some other poor sap deal with it.
3 steve 11.19.09 at 3:51 pm: Lots more to this story than just that article, he has history with the police and faced a previous charge, but not a word about that for some reason.

You find a gun in the UK , you press 999, you don’t put it in the car , drive several miles, bypass the desk officer and slap it on the desk of the boss upstairs.

Lots more going on here than we are told.
4 Todd Rogers 11.19.09 at 7:43 pm: Does the UK not have some sort of jury nullification doctrine?

Comments on this entry are closed.