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A stolen motorbike’s tracking device led police to uncover a loaded gun hidden in a North Face bag, wrapped inside a Moncler coat. Officers, who were investigating the theft, had raided a house expecting to recover the vehicle but found a self-loading pistol and ammunition instead.
DNA was found on the gun belonging to Kirk Davies, 22, leading to emotional scenes in court as he was sent to prison over the unexpected find. He maintains that he was looking after the deadly weapon for other criminals, whose identities he refuses to reveal because he is “afraid of repercussions”.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Wednesday (December 11), that a security firm alerted Merseyside Police to a tracker placed on a motorcycle prior to its theft. This resulted in the bike being traced to the garden of a house on Westhead Avenue in Kirkby on 23 May this year.
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Isabella Denn-White, prosecuting, described how PCs then conducted a search of the address and discovered a loaded firearm inside a black North Face crossbody bag, which itself was wrapped within a black Moncler coat. A total of 27 rounds of ammunition associated with submachine guns were also recovered alongside the weapon, which was later found to be a Glock-type self-loading pistol.
Davies’ DNA was located on both the gun and bullets within the magazine. Davies, of Middle Way in Croxteth, has three previous convictions for four offences, including for possession of an offensive weapon in a public place in 2018.
The ECHO reports how he claimed in a basis of plea, which was accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service, that he had been minding the pistol for a “short period of time” before it was seized, having been asked to do so by its unnamed owner. Davies, who was defended by Jason Smith, admitted possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of ammunition without a certificate.
Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool, he was jailed for five years. One woman was seen in tears in the public gallery as Davies was handed the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for the former charge.
Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: “Your case is that you were asked by someone to take the bag containing the gun and ammunition. You are not prepared to name that person as you are afraid of repercussions.
“Your task was to look after the bag until it was collected. You accept handling the gun and ammunition, hence the presence of your DNA. Your case is that you were in possession of it for a short period of time and would have returned it when asked.
“There are simply no exceptional circumstances in this case. I cannot therefore, by law, impose any sentence shorter than five years’ imprisonment. There is no reason to impose any higher sentence, so that is to be the sentence.”
