East Belfast man who pointed air-soft gun at police as he was chased by officers jailed
A man who pointed an air-soft gun at police as he was chased by officers was jailed on Tuesday.
Stephen Dingwall was told he will spent half the 21 month sentence in prison and half on licence for three offences committed in November 2022.
From Lichfield Avenue, 38-year old Dingwall admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence as well as resisting and assaulting police.
Belfast Crown Court heard that in the early hours of November 17, 2022 Dingwall exited a taxi in the Ormeau Road area of the city. Police had reason to approach Dingwall, who ran off and during a police pursuit, an officer saw a black object in his hand.
Dingwall then stumbled, turned and raised this object towards the officer before dropping it and continuing to run down the street.
Crown barrister Natasha Fitzsimons told Judge Lynch that the object dropped by Dingwall during the pursuit was an imitation handgun which was retrieved by police.
She said that a short time later Dingwall was “found by police hiding in a garden” - and at that point he “resisting and assaulted a police officer as he was being apprehended”.
Following his arrest, Dingwall said ‘when am I getting my gun back?’ and during an interview, he gave a ‘no comment’ response to questions posed by police. The item was subsequently examined and was found to be a plastic air-soft pistol.
Defence barrister Richard McConkey KC said that despite being released on bail, Dingwall revoked this himself “as he knew a custodial sentence was inevitable” and has spent seven months on remand.
Mr McConkey also spoke of his client’s “relatively modest” criminal record which consists of ten previous convictions, the last of which was committed over a decade ago.
Regarding the possession of the imitation handgun and its intended use, the defence barrister told Judge Lynch that due to Dingwall’s intoxication, he “didn’t know what he was doing”.
Mr McConkey added that Dingwall has “asked me to emphasise that he apologies to the officer for any distress that was caused during the course of this incident”.
As he sentenced Dingwall, Judge Lynch said that “no explanation” had been given about why he had the imitation handgun and that an officer sustained an injury to his shin during the arrest. The case concluded when the Judge granted a Destruction Order in respect of the imitation firearm.
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