Mark Irwin, 23, has been handed an eight month suspended sentence with 200 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence in Strood, Kent. While intoxicated he took a carbon-dioxide powered air pistol to the home of his former girlfriend and mother of his child, with the intention of threatening her former boyfriend with whom she had cheated on Irwin. He returned home without taking the gun out but had been seen by a member of the public, who had reported him to police. Irwin had previously been cautioned for assault and affray at the age of 18, and reprimanded for another assault two years prior.

Clydebank Post, 26 March 2012

A cat was shot in the chest with an airgun in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire. The pet reportedly was shot and in pain for weeks before undergoing surgery to remove the pellet.

Raymond Arthur Evans, 74, has pleaded guilty to possessing an air rifle disguised as a walking stick and possessing a hammer action double barrelled shotgun without a firearms certificate in Hawarden, Flintshire. The retired gamekeeper was found to be in illegal possession of the guns when they were discovered while he was moving house into a residential home. Evans had legally owned the airgun cane since he was 17 but had failed to destroyed it or to obtain a certificate for it when the law changed in 2004.