Source Today Newspaper
GREAT BAY – The Court in First Instance sentenced Bradley Stephenson Clement Bryan yesterday to 15 months of imprisonment for illegal firearm possession. Of the sentence 5 months are suspended and the court imposed 2 years of probation.
Bryan was already in court last week but on that occasion the judge postponed the case because he wanted to hear the officers that had booked him as witnesses.
On February 27, Bryan encountered a routine traffic control at the roundabout on Union Road near the French border. One of the officers entered the car to check the proper functioning of lights, brakes and horn. In doing so, he moved the driver’s seat backwards and that is when he spotted the gun.
Bryan told the court that the officers had not told him that they were going to search his car. When the officer found the gun he took off, but the policemen caught him before the border.
The prosecutor demanded 18 months of imprisonment last week, with 6 months suspended; yesterday he stuck to this demand.
Bryan’s attorney Remco Stomp said that the officers had obtained the evidence illegally and that his client ought to be acquitted, but the judge arrived at a different conclusion. He considered the statements of the policemen reliable and said that there were no doubts about what had transpired during the control.
