Boy had gun and bullets at age 13

A boy of 13 found with a gun, a silencer and ammunition was the youngest person arrested in London for possessing a firearm, police said.

The teenager, from New Cross, south-east London, admitted having a Russian Baikal pistol, two silencers and 31 cartridges at his home.

The boy cannot be named but was arrested in August at the age of 13, Inner London Crown Court heard.

He admitted possessing a firearm, a prohibited weapon and ammunition.

"This is an extremely sad and deeply concerning case"
Det Ch Insp Peter Beyer

The boy, who is now 14, was one of the youngest people in the UK to be charged with firearms offences.

Judge Usha Karu granted bail but with conditions including a curfew, and said custody was "almost inevitable".

"He was the youngest member of a gang. He agreed to store a firearm on a previous occasion for the same person," the judge said.

"He had been given the firearm and silencers and ammunition in a bag and asked by telephone by the same person to separate them. That's what he did," the judge said.

When detectives first entered his house the youth and his mother both denied there were weapons in their home.

But officers discovered a machete in the child's bedroom wardrobe, as well as the Baikal pistol hidden in a rucksack behind the stairs in the basement.

In the rucksack officers found two black metal silencers.

A sock containing a quantity of professionally made ammunition was found nearby and a barrel brush, used for cleaning the bore of a gun barrel was found hidden in the loft accessed from the boy's bedroom.

Following the guilty plea, Det Ch Insp Peter Beyer said: "This is an extremely sad and deeply concerning case, no matter what the outcome had been.

"As a proactive unit, we are committed to targeting anyone thought to be in possession of firearms, however not one of my officers wants to come across a child in possession of a live gun."

The boy will return to court on 30 January.