David Prior, aged 51, has been handed a suspended seventeen-month prison term and a ten-year criminal behaviour order with 25 days of rehabilitation after admitting making an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose. In June 2023, a major incident was declared after police officers discovered suspicious items in Prior’s home in Stockport, Greater Manchester. After the occupants of 63 nearby addresses were evacuated, an army explosive ordinance disposal officer and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services were called in to conduct a thorough search. They recovered items including 112 fireworks, plastic objects that may have been made using a 3D printer, an imitation handgun and blank 12mm ammunition casings. The court heard that Prior had been making fireworks using chemical processes and that videos were found of him saying that he could make self-defence explosives if there was a civil war. His devices revealed searches for pistols, explosives, landmines and grenades.

Following reports of two firearm incidents, police officers searched a property and surrounding area in Cowdenbeath, Fife. A man has since been arrested in connection with the alleged offences.

During a day of action in Oldham, Greater Manchester, police officers seized items including a loaded gun, drug paraphernalia, high-value watches, illegal vapes and cigarettes, and two stolen vehicles. Officers also discovered a cannabis farm. Forty arrests were made for offences including drug supply, conspiracy to supply firearms and the importation of controlled substances.

Police officers arrested five people after a property in Stoke, Staffordshire was damaged by gunshot. Two men and two women were detained for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, while a third man was held for criminal damage to property and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Kevin O’Donnell, aged 31, has been jailed for 30 months after being found guilty of two assaults and culpable and reckless conduct. In May 2021, O’Donnell fired a paintball gun from a moving car in Dundee, Scotland. He injured a teenage boy, struck a man and fired at a moving car being driven by a woman he was banned from seeing. Police officers recovered the paintball gun from a flat in the city the following day.

The coroner at the inquest into the death of a woman in Great Massingham, Norfolk has concluded that she took her own life using a shotgun. The woman’s body was found by her fiancé at their home in July 2023. The woman had been suffering mental health problems but had refused medication. Her fiancé told the inquest that he had a firearms licence and kept three guns in a safe, but only he knew where the keys were kept. The coroner ruled out suicide as the cause of death, saying she didn’t believe the victim had been “thinking clearly”.

Following a firearms incident in Middlewich, Cheshire, police officers charged a man with the possession of a prohibited weapon, namely a firearm, and the possession of a firearm during a five-year period following a suspended sentence of three months or more being passed. Click on media link to read full report.

Following information received that a licenced firearms dealer was in possession of prohibited weapons, police officers searched his home in Corfton, Shropshire and removed 70 firearms, ammunition and other related items. The man was arrested for possession of prohibited firearms offences. A police spokesperson said, “This operation serves as a timely reminder for people to adhere to the terms of their licence. Firearms and ammunition should always be stored safely, appropriately, and legally. Licence holders should also only hold firearms which they are licensed for. This is a great example of a joint operation where firearms have been removed before they get into the wrong hands. The firearms licensing team don’t simply process applications; as demonstrated by this case, we can and do investigate, enforce and prosecute where necessary.”

A man has been charged with eleven offences including rape, attempted rape, assaulting a person thereby occasioning them actual bodily harm, criminal damage, harassment without violence, intentional strangulation and possessing an imitation firearm. The alleged offences took place in Brighton, Worthing and Fleet, Hampshire.

Police appealed for information following reports that a gun was shot at the front window of a house in Stockton, Co, Durham. The property was unoccupied at the time of the attack.