Vicar jailed for keeping loaded gun

The gun was brought into England from the US

A vicar has been jailed for four months after keeping a loaded gun hidden in a grandfather clock at his vicarage in Greater Manchester.

On Tuesday Salford Magistrates' court heard how the Reverend Michael Daggett, 54, kept the gun for protection.

Daggett, a US citizen, came to the UK in 1984, before becoming vicar at The Church of the Holy Rood, Swinton, in 1990.

He pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm and possession of ammunition.

The vicar kept a loaded Derringer

The court heard how police visited the vicarage in Moorside Road, Salford, in February, while investigating another matter.

Howard Shaw, prosecuting, said they found four boxes of .22 bullets in a downstairs cabinet. Another box of bullets was found in a bedside cabinet.

Daggett later told the officer the German-made double barrelled Frontier Derringer was for his protection.

It was revealed in court he had once caught a burglar inside the vicarage.

'Different culture'

Mark Benson, defending, said the gun was a family heirloom that had been given to Daggett by a friend of his father's when he was a child.

Mr Benson said: "He would not have needed a licence to hold such a gun in the United States, there's a different culture there.

"There was a genuine belief on his behalf that a weapon of that calibre was not prohibited."

Mr Benson said Daggett had loaded the gun "out of curiosity" and was intending to use it at a shooting range but had never got round to it.

'Wrong hands'

But Judge John Finestein said: "I reject the suggestion that is being made that you do not know about the gun laws in this country.

"You were in possession of an extremely dangerous weapon for your protection in your bedroom.

"In these situations guns have been used where burglaries have happened and the gun could get into the wrong hands."

Daggett intends to appeal against the sentence, but he was told he would serve at least two months of it before being released.