Three years for man found with sawn-off shot guns

A Kildare man who told gardaí he was "living in fear" but would be "in even more trouble" if he revealed who he was scared of has had been given a three years sentence for possession of guns.

Christopher Dowling (aged 39) of Wolfhill, Athy said he was "set up" when gardaí arrested him for possession of two sawn-off shotguns and a pistol and claimed he had just found them in a house he owned in Kildare and he was bringing them to Dublin.

Judge Katherine Delahunt noted that there was a gun amnesty available to Dowling at the time and said that she must take this into account when considering his motivation and explanation for having the firearms.

She suspended the last 12 months of the sentence having taken into account that Dowling had not come to garda attention since, had no previous convictions and had co-operated with gardaí "to some extent".

Dowling pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to unlawfully possessing the firearms and 159 rounds of ammunition in Ballyfermot on November 16, 2006.

Garda Robert Smith told prosecuting counsel, Mr Garrett Baker BL, that when he interviewed Dowling about the guns he said he was being "set up" but refused to say who was doing that.

Gda Smith said he and his colleagues found the guns and ammunition in a sports bag in the boot of a BMW parked in the back garden of Dowling's sister's house in Ballyfermot.

The bag contained two double barrelled sawn-off shotguns, one of them disassembled, one disassembled 9mm blank firing pistol and 159 shotgun cartridges.

Dowling was arrested when he arrived a short time later and told gardai he had found the guns on his property in Athy when "he was looking for timber."

When asked why he didn't hand the guns over to gardaí, he said he didn't want them to find them on his property and that it would "look fishy" if they found them in his car.

Defence counsel, Mr Donal McGuinness BL submitted that Dowling had never come to garda attention before this matter.