Gunman who was disarmed and beaten with air rifle in row outside Sedgley bar is jailed

Gavin Harkins was stopped in his tracks when he came face to face with a security guard, who took the gun off him and beat him with it, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Harkins had gone home after being refused entry to a pub, collected the air rifle and a kitchen knife and returned to the area in the early hours of August 14, the court heard.

The 22-year-old held the .22 air rifle at waist level and pointed it at people in the Bull Ring in Sedgley with his finger on the trigger while warning 'you are having it,' explained Mr Mark Phillips, prosecuting.

Mark Bradley, in charge of the door staff at the nearby Swan pub, went up to Hawkins with another man and disarmed the gunman outside Monty's Bar at 12.30am.

The defendant was sent to the ground and struck several times with the butt of the gun after it was broken open, the court heard.

Mr Phillips said: "Mr Bradley was concerned about the defendant whom he disarmed and ensured he no longer presented a threat to anybody while they waited for the police."

Harkins was taken to hospital with facial injuries and arrested after treatment. A pellet was found lying beside him in the street but it is unclear if this had been in the rifle.

The defendant declined to answer questions when quizzed by police but later told a probation officer that he armed himself and returned to the area after being refused entry to an unidentified pub, continued Mr Phillips, who concluded: "We had a man coming out with a weapon and pointing it at somebody while having ammunition for the weapon, whether it was armed or not."

Mr Anthony Potter, defending, conceded: "It was wholly out of character. At the time, he was the full time carer for his mother and had recently split from his partner and 18-month-old son. This all combined with a quantity of alcohol to make him behave in a totally inappropriate way.

"He was subdued and didn't resist and acted in a way consistent with a man who had had too much to drink."

Harkins, from Glenn Road, Dudley, and of previous good character, pleaded guilty to possession of an air rifle and knife and was jailed for 14 months.