They were ‘proudly displayed on the wall as part of a collection’, a court heard
The father of a stalker was found with an arsenal of weapons, including a gun, ammunition swords and a flick knife, when police searched the family home. Officers went to the house in an East Yorkshire village as part of an investigation into stalking offences committed by the man’s son, a court heard.
Russell Ward, 61, of Londesborough, near Market Weighton, admitted possessing a Smith and Wesson revolver, dating back to the 19th Century, without a certificate. He also admitted having ammunition without a lawful certificate, two swords and a flick knife. He admitted possessing a small amount of cannabis.
Claire Holmes, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that police went to Ward’s home and discovered the weapons because they were on display on the walls. Officers also found a hidden flick knife in a bedside table drawer.
As reported earlier this year, the son, Travis Ward wore a trench coat and a red hoodie when he stalked mothers as they took their children to school in Hull and he sprayed one with bodily fluid from a syringe. “Obsessive” Travis Ward kept a tally of the encounters with the women, making up names for them and writing in notes on his phone what he would he would like to do with them.
The court heard police found the son’s membership of banned far-right group Britain First along with vile images on his phone. The son, from Londesborough, admitted four stalking offences, sexual assault by spraying one woman with fluid from a syringe and an offence of possessing indecent images of a woman having sex with a Dalmatian dog and a horse. He was jailed at Grimsby Crown Court for three years and four months.
Miss Holmes said that the father’s offences were unrelated to the son’s offences. On February 29 last year, police seized the weapons from the house. Some were imitation firearms, while others had the potential to cause harm.
The revolver was not capable of discharging cartridges. However, the chamber could have been adapted to fire live ammunition. Experts rebuilt the revolver to prove its capability of firing successfully. Police found 45 separate .22 cartridges inside a glove in the porch of the home along with other cartridges, none of which had a lawful certificate. A flick knife was found in a bedside drawer.
Harry Crowson, mitigating, said that much of the collection of military memorabilia had been inherited. Ward believed the revolver belonged to his grandfather and it had been handed down by his father.
“None of them were hidden or put under a mattress for some kind of criminality, but proudly displayed on the wall as part of a collection,” said Mr Crowson.
Judge Gurdial Singh said: “It is not my idea of decor. Swords on a wall are one thing but a flick knife is something else. I am struggling with possession of a flick knife. It is the fact that it is at home that saves him from going to prison. If it was in public, it is immediate prison.”
Judge Singh said that Ward knew it was an offensive weapon and he had no legitimate reason to have it.
Ward was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and 10 days’ rehabilitation. Judge Singh ordered the seized weapons to be destroyed.