BB pistol sparked armed police alert

Judge lenient after pair caught on CCTV
A JUDGE has issued a stark warning that people caught with firearms in public — including imitation weapons — can expect to be dealt with severely.

Sentencing two people from Oldham who were arrested after being spotted outside a block of flats with what appeared to be a self-loading pistol, judge Timothy Mort said: “Courts, along with the police, are genuinely worried about firearms.”

A police alert was sparked when Carl Rosbottom (20) and Sammyjo Taylor (20) were seen holding the pistol outside Crossbank House and Summervale House flats on October 6 last year.

CCTV cameras had picked up both of them, along with Rosbottom’s brother Tyler, taking it in turns to hold the weapon.

Taylor then left the scene, while the brothers went into an address in Blenheim Place.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told that armed police went into the home where they arrested the two men.

Nicoletta Amatino, prosecuting, said when the pistol was examined, it turned out to be a BB gun which fired pellets.

The blue gun had been bought from a newsagent’s shop the week before by Tyler, who then painted it black because he liked the colour better.

When interviewed he said he had bought it to use for target practice and had fired it at lamp posts.

The court was told the brothers had been visiting their mother and had taken the gun out into the street because they had been “bored”.

Shots had been fired, but no visible damage done.

Taylor and Carl Rosbottom, both pleaded guilty to an offence of having an imitation firearm in a public place. A bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Tyler Rosbottom, who failed to appear at court.

Judge Mort told the pair that while he had powers to jail them for up to 12 months, he would deal with them leniently.

He told them: “It is perfectly legal to go into a shop and buy a gun such as this, and it is perfectly legal to keep it at home and even fire it at home. Once you take it out on to the street, it is a serious offence.”

He added: “You can see how someone might easily have regarded this as the real thing. There are masses of them about. That is the unfortunate situation we are in.”

Rosbottom, of Summervale House, Vale Drive, was given a 12-month community order, including nine-month supervision, and Taylor, of Bankside Close, Oldham, was also given a 12-month community order and ordered to spend a total of 18 hours at an attendance centre.