Man caught with loaded gun as he tried to run away from police in Craigavon, court hears

Sentencing Keith Doddy at Craigavon Crown Court, Judge Patrick McGurgen said that while he accepted there was no terrorist association or involvement in the case, it was equally true there were no exceptional circumstances to justify stepping away from the mandatory minimum sentence.

Accordingly, he ordered 35-year-old Doddy to serve half his sentence in custody and the remainder under licence conditions.

At an earlier court hearing, Doddy, whose address had been previously listed as no fixed abode in Dublin, but now given as c/o HMP Maghaberry, admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances and possessing of the pistol without a certificate on February 10 last year.

During his sentencing remarks on Wednesday, April 30, Judge McGirgen outlined how police officers had been on patrol in the Drumellen area of Craigavon just after 8pm that Saturday evening when they saw a man running away from the liveried armoured police Land Rover.

The driver alerted his colleagues who gave chase and when one police officer “rugby tackled” the defendant, “police heard a metallic noise hitting the ground”.

A search of the immediate area was carried out and officers discovered a black handgun, an American manufactured Glock 17, which had a loaded magazine.

Judge McGurgen outlined that while there was no round in the chamber of the gun, it was an aggravating feature that the magazine had 17 bullets in it as well as an “additional baseplate” which allowed for an extra two rounds to be loaded into the potentially lethal weapon.

During police interviews, Doddy refused to provide any explanation or to answer any questions, but the judge said that according to the pre-sentence report compiled by the Probation Board, the 35-year-old defendant claimed he was involved having gotten into debt to criminal elements over cocaine misuse.

Doddy claimed he was told to “be at a certain place at a certain time” and when he was given an item, he was to take to another area and wait for someone to collect it.

He told Probation that after he realised it was a gun, he “panicked” when he saw men in dark clothing approaching him, so not realising they were actually the police, he ran.

The court heard that while the gang presented Doddy with the choice to wipe out his debts, he told Probation “he did not have a choice as he knew that he would be hurt if he did not cooperate and he was fearful that his family would be hurt”.

Judge McGurgen told the court that while the offences Doddy had admitted were both “serious and specified” and he had 41 previous convictions for drugs and making threats, he was not assessing the defendant as a dangerous offender.

In addition to the prison sentence, the judge also ordered the gun and ammunition to be destroyed.