A judge has imposed a four year-two month prison term on a father of three found with a M16 machine gun used in war zones.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford imposed a 56 month prison term on tree surgeon, Evan Little suspending the final six months.
Imposing sentence, Judge Comerford said that Mr Little had engaged “in very serious offending” where he was holding a M16 weapon and ammunition for drug dealers.
He said: “There was no evidence that Mr Little was going to decide when the gun was going to be used.”
In the case, Mr Little (33) of Inis Eagla, Shannon has pleaded guilty to the possession of the M16 machine gun, 179 rounds of ammunition and a 30 round capacity magazine in a forested area at Shannon on September 15th last.
Judge Comerford said that an aggravating factor in the case was that Mr Little was holding the gun for a criminal organisation.
Mr Little said that the reason he stored the weapon in a forested area at Clonmoney West in Shannon was that he was scared that people he owed a €12,000 drug debt to would harm his partner and their children, aged 11, 7 and 4.
In a letter read out in court to Judge Comerford, Mr Little said: “The people I got the drugs off threatened me and my family. I was scared that they would hurt my partner and children and that is the reason I agreed to hide the gun for them.
“It was a terrible decision to make but I was under duress…
I was caught between a rock and another rock.”
However, Judge Comerford said that any duress from owing money to drug dealers “is self induced duress”.
He said: “Anyone who buys drugs from drug dealers has to anticipate that they may come under duress and the drug dealers will be ruthless.”
Judge Comerford said that in his letter, Mr Little said that the duress was the reason why he stored the weapon.
The judge said that it is harder to come to the conclusion that duress is a significant factor in the case before him than another case he had come across.
Judge Comerford said that Mr Little was interviewed seven times by Gardai and never mentioned duress as being a factor.
He said: “Duress doesn’t gel that easily with Mr Little showing how the gun operated on a phone video days before he was caught. In the Probation Report, there was no indication of any threats.”
He said: “I am not sure duress is there and is a factor I should put a huge amount of weight on when sentencing.”
Judge Comerford said: “I am approaching the case in that Mr Little had no direct involvement in the activities of drug dealers.”
Judge Comerford imposed a headline sentence of eight years and taking Mr Little’s signed plea of guilt from the district court, previous convictions of a minor nature, his good work history, he reduced the sentence to 56 months and suspended the final six months.
Mr Little has been on remand in custody since local Gardai and members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) swooped on Mr Little during a surveillance operation on the military grade weapon on September 15th last and Judge Comerford back-dated the sentence to that date.
In a letter penned by Mr Little to Judge Comerford, he said that he wanted to express his “deepest remorse” for his actions.
Mr Little said: “On reflection this could have led to dire consequences – I had no right to do what I had done.”
“I now believe that getting caught with the fire-arm was for the best as to prevent it ever being used.”
“I know in my heart of hearts that if that happened, it would be the end of me. I would certainly never want anything bad to ever happen to anyone.”
He said: “I can truly say that I am racked with guilt over this awful decision I made.”
He said: “It has had a knock-on effect on a number of people – my partner and my children are never far from my mind.”
Mr Little said: “I feel terrible for the rest of my family for bringing shame to our name. I don’t believe that I am a bad person but I made some very poor choices.
In a separate letter by Mr Little’s partner read out by his counsel Patrick Whyms BL (instructed by solicitor, Daragh Hassett), she said that Mr Little “is a good man, hard working and a good Dad who went down a bad road”.
She said: “Evan went for a walk with the dog as he would have most days and never came home – the kids are very affected by this.”
She said: “He has never been in trouble in his life and I am sure this is his first and last time.”
After Judge Comerford passed sentence, Mr Little’s partner who was sitting close-by to him asked ‘your Honour, can I give him a hug?”
Judge Comerford said that it was a matter for the prison officers and the woman gave Mr Little a hug before he was led away by prison officers to serve his sentence.
