Judge says sorry as he jails OAP for five years for firing 'souvenir' WWII pistol

Last updated at 18:07pm on 07.02.08
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Victor Bowden: Shot the windscreen of a neighbour's car after he was woken by loud music

A judge apologised to a pensioner after saying he had no choice but to jail him for five years after he opened fire on a neighbour's empty car with a Second World War pistol.

Victor Bowden, 65, had been driven to desperate measures by a two-and-a-half year battle over her constant partying and loud music, a court heard.
In the early hours of the morning, he took the gun, a wartime souvenir that had belonged to his stepfather, and fired it through the windscreen of his young neighbour's car.
Today, he is beginning a prison sentence after a judge said he regretted that he was required by law to impose the lengthy term for his "foolish" act - even though the neighbour herself had pleaded for leniency.
"Regrettably, despite all the research we have done, there is no justification for any sentence other than the minimum five years in this case," Judge Robert Brown told him.
Labour introduced a mandatory minimum five-year term for anyone caught with a firearm in public in a bid to clamp down on rising inner-city shootings, many involving drugs gangs.
By contrast, Bowden lives in the fishing port of Fleetwood, Lancashire, where he had been locked in a dispute with his neighbour, Karen Potter.
Preston Crown Court heard the retired security guard had been driven to distraction by the loud music and late-night parties at her home.

WWII souvenir: The pistol had belonged to his stepfather


He had complained to the local council, although not to police.
On October 18 last year, shortly after 3am, he fetched the wartime self-loading pistol, aimed it out of an upstairs window, and fired it through the windscreen of her parked car.
She went outside to investigate and found the glass shattered and a bullet embedded in the dashboard, the court heard.
Police were called and found Bowden in his back garden where he had hidden the gun - a German-made 7.65mm Sauer and Sohn - in a plant pot.
He later pleaded guilty to possession of an illegal firearm and having the gun while committing an act of criminal damage.
Miss Potter wrote to the court asking for leniency for her neighbour.
"I feel that he should be punished, but I don't ask that he go to prison," she said. "I just wish he had come and spoken to me before this happened."
Following the row, Bowden had moved to live with his mother, who is suffering from cancer, the court heard.
However, the judge said he had no choice but to pass the minimum sentence, which applies in all apart from "exceptional" cases.
He told Bowden: "You had become exasperated, and perhaps reasonably so, by the music coming from your neighbour's house in the early hours of the morning.
"Maybe because you had had some beer, on this particular night that exasperation became too much for you, and you decided to make some noise of your own."
Jailing him for five years for the firearms offence, with a further year to run concurrently for the criminal damage, he said he was taking into account the circumstances leading up to his "foolish act".
Afterwards, Det Con Mark Kelsall, of Fleetwood CID, said: "Bowden's behaviour was irrational and frightening, and although nobody was in the street when he discharged the firearm, his neighbours were understandably very upset and scared by the incident."

Judge says sorry as he jails OAP for five years for firing 'souvenir' WWII pistol| News | This is London

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

"On October 18 last year, shortly after 3am, he fetched the wartime self-loading pistol,"

I want a pistol that can self load! LOL

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I don't disagree with the need for some form of strong punishment, but 5 years is a big much. He was foolish to use his weapon in such a manner. IMO, weapons should not misused like he did. If you feel led to discharge a pistol at something other than a practice target, it should be done with the intent to kill whatever living target you are aiming at. If you keep this in mind while handling a weapon, you will be far less likely to recklessly fire a weapon; is this act I am committing worth the death of another?

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Best Regards,
JW

I agree. I have had quite a few weapons in my life and I do have a Concealed carry permit. But 5 years for a stupid mistake? I think something else could have been done.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

He sure deserves some kind of punishement for taking the law in his own hands, but Good Lord five year! Some get less than that for murder! I hope the old man gets on parole as soon as possible. I think he has learnt his lesson and must be desperate. On the other hand I understand the judge who had no choice and the man could have actually hurt someone.

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Wonderful British justice we have he gets five years while a yob who murdered a man gets three.

There is no real justice here in the UK anymore.

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He should have consulted someone like me. I'd have recommended a late night visit using a 1000 VDC meggar and some minor wiring changes. Nothing like a little (in the UK case) 440 VAC for home appliances or a bit of 1000 VDC to ensure electronics arn't any longer. Only takes a few minutes and every gets put back right so.....obviously it's her fault her home stereo system had a minor meltdown and no longer works.....

Agreed... I have seen cases here in the states where a Judge gave a rapist 2 years and probation!!!!!

By the way what OAP stand for?

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

OAP?

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Best Regards,
JW

Old Age Pensioner?

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Old Aged Person. Damn, you have to have a frigging Portagee teaching you your own language!

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"A judge apologised to a pensioner after saying he had no choice but to jail him for five years after he opened fire on a neighbour's empty car with a Second World War pistol."

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Ah ha! Thanks...

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

OAP is Limey-speak. We'd use "senior citizen"

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Best Regards,
JW

Damned Colonials But 'old' at 65? Shudder

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We use the term "Old Git" LOL

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Or old fart.

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O A P = ORIGINAL AWESOME PORTAGEE

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Nah. It's Overly Aged person.

Preston, the city I was born in. A lot if interesting stuff happens round here sometimes. Like that time they caught a Mafia don here.

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Bloody hell that's done it we're not going hear the last of Za's ego trip.

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In the case of this Gent who fired the handgun, its a blatant miscarrage of justice. All he should have recieved at maximum, was some probation and community service.

I once knew a convicted Child Rapist. The reason I knew this sack-of-**** was because it was also responsible for kidnapping, raping and almost killing, my then, fiance. This fatherless bastard, had been in and out of prison a few times for the same offense. The first time was for kidnapping and raping a two year old girl and her mother. It spent only 1 year behind bars for that one.

For the one where it kidnapped and raped my then, fiance, it was sentenced to ONLY five years. It got two days off of its sentence for every one day it served in the county jail. When it was moved to the State Penal System, it had already served a year in county jail meaning that it now only had to serve one full year at the Transfer Facility in Beeville, before it would be released once again to kidnap and rape.

When I got my job as a Correctional Officer, I happened to be placed at the same Transfer Facility as the rapist was housed at-unknown to me of course.

SOME justice that was. This ******** served to the best of my knowledge-for all of its offenses, a mere 4 years behind bars-yet they send others up with much lesser charges--for much higher sentences.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Sad isn't it? Same here. The fact that the Judge said he was sorry makes us aware that a new law should be voted for such cases. The guy probably deserved a few months and a fine. What about the local council who failed to prevent this?

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That's the age at which you become entitled to a state pension in the UK.

ps The kicker was the fact it was an illegal weapon, if the weapon had been legal, he would have probably got away with probation.

In British Law the use of a illegal firearm in the commission of a crime carries a minimum 5 year sentence.

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if in doubt....Panic!!!!

Hi Skipper, sadly, the exact same thing is starting to happen here and especially in texas. Also, I wish I had an answer to your question but don't know how to answer it?

The jerk I mentioned above, has been in and out of one form of jail or another, all of it's life starting with reform school when it was much younger. It seems as if it will never "learn its lesson" by doing time in jail, and, the only thing I can see happening with this jerk is that someday, it's pettiness will result in some litle girl or woman; murdered.

As an addition to my story above. I happened to be working as a Rover and we were understaffed as was the usual. Anyway, I was the roving Correctional Officer in charge of four dorms (A-5-8) which means I was in charge of 200 inmates.

Well, I was passing out the mail in dorm 8, when I was asked by a shirtless inmate what my name was but before I could reply-it said my full name-to which inmates are not supposed to know that. It also said I was from Kingsville and that I was the boyfriend of the woman that this ******* raped-only it said that it was accused of raping. I instantly knew then who it was.

As per regulations, if an officer knows an inmate, it is to be reported and the inmate is to be moved to another facility. Well, being that I was fresh in working there, I figured it would not hurt to finish passing out the mail-as I was already almost done. The inmate continued to tell several others what it knew about me. When I finished with the mail, I started walking towards the dorms door. These doors are all electrified and have to be opened by the officer in the control; picket. Unfortunately, the officer I was working with was not paying attention but I eventually managed to get out.

Unknownst to me, that inmate I knew was about to try to attack me. I was buzzed through the door and started closing it when the inmate tried to rush out the door. Well, these doors are solid steel doors with a plexiglass window and bars on the inside. The inmate tried to grab me to pull me back into the dorm by sticking its right arm out to keep it from closing and I said if you don't get your F*****g arm back in that I was going to slam my body against the door and break that F*****s arm. Anyway, I made through with my promise ans slammed the door-I never saw anyone move so quickly out of the way.

Needless to say, that inmate was red with anger and I called for a Supervisor, camera and one person for back-up. I told my Serg4eant what had happened when he arrived (my Sgt was a former Green Beret and could take care of himself) We then pulled the inmate from the dorm (camera recording everything) and the Sgt and I grabbed the inmate by its arms and pulled it into the outer sallyport. The Sgt talked so low that his voice was inaudible on the camera-which was hard to do because these were top of the line cameras at that time and could pick up a Mouse's fart at 50 yards.

Anyway, the inmate was taken to solitar confinement for threatening staff. About a week or so later, we held General Court-which meant that the inmate was arrested in prison, and taken to a General Court with additional charges pending. The inmate decided to defend iself and to make a long story a bit shorter-it lost it's case and was given an additional 5 years to spend in prison after serving it's original time. As soon as the original time was done-it then automatically started it's 5 yr sentence after being transferred to the Roach unit located near the border with the State of Oklahoma. From me, that was about 10 hours or so away from where I was stationed.

Anyway, as soon as the verdict was read against the inmate-i was asked if it had anything else to say-and it flew into a rage saying that it was not only going to kill me when it got out of prison, but also the Judge and the Warden of the prison I worked at as well as my supervising Sergeant. Biiiiiiig big mistake on it's part. The Judge informed the inmate that if he got out of prison and touched anyone-that it would recieve the Deatrh Penalty.

I was asked if I wanted to make a statement and I said yes, I would like to do so. I merely said that if I was ever contacted by said inmate, that I would use whatever force necessary, to protect myself-which means that as a Correctional Officer-im considered Law Enforcement and I had certain powers and protections according to the law. It was made clear to that inmate, what the consequences could be.

This happened about 12 years ago, and I have never seen this inmate and never been threatened by any inmate that was released from prison-whom I ever supervised. I take that as quite a nice compliment that when im out somewhere and I am recognized by a former inmate-that if he is with his family of friends-they I am introduced to them and he always tells them that I was always very fair and never mistreated anyone--unless that inmate deserved it.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.