Man Jailed Over "Toy" Gun Threat

A man who terrified three women by waving a "toy" gun in their faces was jailed yesterday.

Stephen Low, 23, confronted the trio in a street in Aberdeen last year while brandishing the realistic black firearm.

He then pointed the weapon - which has never been recovered - directly in the face of one of women before pulling the trigger, hitting a nearby lamppost with a projectile.

Low, an instrument technician with an oil company, was sentenced to a year in jail at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday for assault and possession of a firearm or imitation firearm.

Sheriff William Summers said: "The cold stark reality is that you've pled guilty to two very serious charges.

"It was plainly a terrifying ordeal for those involved.

"Whether or not this was an imitation firearm or not, they thought it was real."

Low admitted the assault on Danielle and Marie Higgins and their friend Stacy Urquhart when he appeared at the court last month.

The court heard that Low had been drunk when he ran up to them on the street carrying what he later claimed was a toy gun.

Low, of Aberdeen, admitted two charges – one of assault and uttering threats of violence and another of having a firearm, or imitation firearm, in his possession.

The firearm was libilled in court paperwork as making his victims fear "unlawful violence would be used against them".

He ran up to the trio in the city's Kemp Street on July 2 last year pointing the weapon and demanding to know the whereabouts of a man who was dating the Higgins sister's mother.

He then discharged the weapon.

The authenticity of the firearm was debated at yesterday's sentencing.

Prosecutors said at last month's plea hearing that there was no way they could prove that if the gun Low was brandishing was a real firearm or not.

The court heard he had broken it into pieces and disposed of it before being detained by police.

The sheriff told defence agent Bob Anderson that his client was "staring into the abyss" of a very long sentence if it was a real firearm.

He said: "The Crown said the last time that it was not accepted that it was an imitation.

"There are certain categories of weapon that I'm obliged to install a mandatory five year sentence."

Mr Anderson replied: "While accepted that it fires something the basis of my advice to Mr Low was about the look of the weapon.

"It looked like a firearm."

Mr Anderson said it was his client's position that he had bought the weapon at a car boot sale and therefore had no way to prove his claim that it was a toy.

But the defence agent added that similar models could be "bought at any toy shop" according to his client.

Sheriff Summers said he was content to proceed on the basis that it was not a real gun but branded the offences "very serious".

He sentenced Low to 12 months imprisonment.