Weapons charges failure

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 8

Weapons charges failure

Four Devil’s Henchmen gang members yesterday had charges of unlawful possession of firearmss dismissed, because the weapons were found buried in a box just outside the gang’s boundary fence on Christchurch City Councilowned land.

Dismissing the charges in the District Court, Judge Paterson held that, in law, the four defendants had escaped the consequences of section 66 of the Arms Act, which was relied on by the police in the prosecution. This “reverse onus” section provides that, where persons are held to be occupiers of premises, any firearms on the premises are deemed to be in their possession unless they can show that the firearms belonged to some other person. The Judge said he had been urged by the police to include the area in which the weapons were buried as being occupied by the defendants, “no doubt in the interests of common sense, but I can’t do so in law.” He said that in this case it seemed a miss was as good as a mile as the weapons were found on another property. No matter how close they were to the gang’s property, section 66 was not available to the prosecution. The defendants were Russell John Keetley, aged 25, a meat grader, Simon Leslie Paulson, aged 24, unemployed (both represented by Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon), Peter Ronald Darrell, aged 29, a block layer (Mr M. J. Glue), and Rex Bruce White, aged 26, a meat grader (Mr P. H. B. Hall).

They had denied joint charges of unlawfully possessing two pistols (cutdown 22 rifles), and unlawfully possessing two .22 rifles and a shotgun, on April 7. Detective Sergeant N. R. Scott appeared for the police. Prosecution evidence was heard on Wednesday, and defence counsel then sought dismissal of the charges on grounds which included that the weapons were not found on the property the defendants were alleged to have occupied. Prosecution evidence had been that police unearthed the weapons in a box buried 14 inches outside a boundary fence of the gang’s property. All defendants denied knowledge or ownership of the weapons. Keetley, Darrell and White were office holders in the gang and Paulson, a prospective member, told the police that he lived at the headquarters.

Giving his reserved decision yesterday on the defence applications, the Judge said he had no hesitation in finding, in each case, that the defendants were occupiers of the gang’s premises. However, the police had a difficult task to link the firearms with the defendants, without relying on section 66, said the Judge. He ruled that this section was not available to the prosecution because the weapons were found on property not ocqupied by the defendants.

The Judge ordered forfeiture to the police of the five firearms, and a silencer and ammunition, found in the police’s search.