Man had heavy-duty handgun for 'self-defence'

A man who was arrested recently while in possession of a heavy-duty handgun has had his bail on this matter upheld at a vacation sitting of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he claimed he had been offered it for self defence following threats against his life.

John Mangan, aged 39, Larkhill Road, Whitehall claimed a girl had handed him the Magnum revolver on the road outside the Comet Pub in Santry minutes before his arrest in the premises.

He told Judge Terence O'Sullivan that he knew nothing about guns and couldn't say what make or type of gun it had been.

Mr Mangan said he had been offered the gun by a man he refused to name after he was notified of threats against his life by gardai. He had agreed to take the gun a week before his arrest and had asked for an unloaded gun.

He said he had taken the gun out of the bag it had been in when he discovered there were three rounds of bullets in the bag as well.

He told Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, his intention had been to get rid of the bullets and that was why they were in his hand when he was arrested.

He told Mr Patrick Geraghty, for the State, that he hadn't got a bullet-proof vest, because he didn't know how to get one but he was offered the gun. He said his first priority was his own safety and that of his family. "My concern is for myself, my common-law wife and my three children."

Mr Mangan said he knew absolutely nothing about guns and could not even identify the gun he had been given but said it looked "around the same size as I've seen on TV."

He had been told by gardaí in several different stations and also on the street that his life was under threat and he had "lost count" of the number of threats he had received but thought it was "eight to ten".

Mr Geraghty told Judge O'Sullivan that it was regrettable that "threats are made more frequently in this society every day but that does not allow people to tool up and carry a loaded firearm."

Mr Geraghty pointed out that a Magnum revolver cannot be held legally in this country and Mr Mangan's bail conditions for a previous matter had required him not to do anything further to break the law.

Judge O'Sullivan refused to revoke Mr Mangan's bail because no offence had been proved against him. "I have to take into account the very human reaction that this man had to protect himself, regardless of whether the firearm had been legally held," he said.