Discussion
Yobs rule Again. :(
EDP:
25 July 2005 20:38
A 59-year-old man “consistently plagued” by youths on a King's Lynn estate was jailed for six years today, after he fired a sawn-off shotgun at them.
Jack Rylance exploded at 12-15 youngsters congregating around the flats complex where he lived, throwing a firework, hitting one with the flat part of a machete and blasting a shot from a shotgun as he stood on a balcony.
The youths had plagued him and his neighbours, urinating on stairs, covering garages in graffiti and doing other criminal damage in the Hillington Court area.
But Mr Recorder Ian Foster told Rylance at Norwich Crown Court that that was no excuse, and jailed him for a total of six years.
“To hit someone with the flat part of a machete is bad enough, but you made matters worse by discharging the firearm from your balcony,” he told him.
Rylance admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition without a certificate and also affray.
Guy Ayers, prosecuting, said it all started as Rylance stood on the balcony outside his flat at Greyfriars House watching a group of youths below in what is known locally as the Mill Fleet.
Without provocation, he hurled a Thunder Flash firework down at them and went back inside.
Some of the group went from door to door trying to establish from which flat the firework had been thrown and one eventually confronted Rylance and asked him why he had done it.
Shortly afterwards he was seen on the balcony carrying what appeared to be a machete in a carrier bag, swore at them and pursued and confronted them. He hit one on the upper part of his body with the flat part of the blade.
A neighbour later saw him on the balcony complaining about youths urinating and vomiting on the stairs and watched in horror as he opened a sawn-off shotgun, loaded and fired it at them.
She then turned to go back inside and heard Rylance saying, 'You haven't heard anything yet”.
William Carter, in mitigation, said a person would “need to be a saint” to “live in Hillington Court and not have difficulties with neighbours” and anyone would “struggled to keep on an even keel with them”.
On the evening in question Rylance phoned the police twice to complain about the youths.
They were “no shrinking violets” and when he had thrown the firework their reaction was to run upstairs towards his flat, with two of them brandishing bottles.
As he chased after them, two were urinating on the stairway.
He also stressed that the cartridge discharged from the sawn-off gun had been filled with salt and that he normally used the weapon for shooting at crows and magpies at a farm where he got work.
“He was consistently plagued over the years by gangs of young men and girls,” said Mr Carter.
“They would urinate on the stairs and in the lifts. He had a garage which was subjected to graffiti and damage. They would set fire to property in the area and use the balcony as a look-out so they would be able to see if the police were on their way.
“He estimates that a dozen times or so he phoned the police to see if he could get anything done. The problem remained and for several years his life had been made hell and he was at his wits end.
“Nobody can excuse what he did and discharging a shotgun was a criminal thing to do and for which he will be punished severely. But I merely wish to put in into its proper context.”
Six years for discharging a weapon in public after years of systematic abuse, £150 fine for piloting 2 tonne of deadly weapon at speeds in excess of 60 in a 30 uninsured.
This country has, I am afraid, gone to shit.
Machetes are balanced items Jon, I've got one in the garage for doing the brambles, more fun than a strimmer!
This country has, I am afraid, gone to shit.
Machetes are balanced items Jon, I've got one in the garage for doing the brambles, more fun than a strimmer!
It is a situation we can sympathise with, but having an illegal firearm and discharging it in public should attract a substantial prison sentence.
The problem is not the sentence itself but that the criminal justice system does nothing to put these teenage scum behind bars where they belong.
If the justice system was doing it's job there would be no need for him to have acted in this way.
The problem is not the sentence itself but that the criminal justice system does nothing to put these teenage scum behind bars where they belong.
If the justice system was doing it's job there would be no need for him to have acted in this way.
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