Businessman to challenge constitutionality of 15-year mandatory minimum sentence for gun possession

Westmoreland businessman 36-year-old Jason Barrett, who received the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment after pleading guilty under the new Firearms Act to unauthorised possession of firearm and ammunition, is appealing the sentence.

Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman, who is representing Barrett on appeal, said today that his client is challenging the sentence on the grounds that it is a breach of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

Wildman said he had several authorities to support the grounds of appeal that the sentence is unconstitutional.

Barrett was sentenced this month in the Western Regional Gun Court in St James.

Evidence was given by the police that in January last year Barrett was seen with a bulge inside his waistband while he was in a shop in Little London, Westmoreland.

The police searched him and found a firearm and ammunition.

He was asked by the police if he had a licence for the firearm and he said yes.

Barrett went into his motor vehicle to search for the licence but did not find it.

He then told the police that perhaps he had left it at home.

When the police escorted him to his home, he then admitted that the gun did not belong to him.

Barrett was then arrested and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon and unauthorised possession of ammunition.

- Barbara Gayle

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