Judge ‘mystified’ over teen gun crime

Published: 30 April, 2010
by DAVID ST GEORGE

AN Old Bailey judge said that he was mystified why a “model pupil from an excellent home” would go out armed with a revolver.
Judge Phillip Clegg, QC, said he could only conclude that the teenager got caught up in a “gun carrying culture”, which is sweeping parts of London.
“It is really like knives. People carry guns because others ­carry guns,” he added.
The 17-year-old from Islington – who was 16 at the time – was jailed for 10 years. He cannot be named for legal reasons.
Jurors convicted him at an earlier hearing on two charges of attempted murder, and having a loaded firearm, a snub nose .38 revolver.
His “deeply religious and law-abiding parents” were in court to see him sentenced.
“Your case is a tragedy,” the judge said. “You have never been in trouble before. What your parents must be going through is hard to imagine.”
The court heard that the youth – who taking 10 GCSEs and was quietly spoken and polite, with no connection with gangs or drugs – was on his bike at midnight when two Turkish men accused him of being involved in theft and tried to detain him.
He pulled out the revolver and fired at them from close range. One of the men was hit, suffering a graze to the chest, and police arrived soon afterwards to arrest the teenager.