Ex-JLP councillor to know fate Friday after pleading guilty to gun charge
Published:Monday | November 2, 2020 | 12:11 AMRasbert Turner/Gleaner Writer
Former local government representative in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, Barrington Bailey, is to be sentenced on Friday for breaches of the Firearms Act.
Bailey, the Jamaica Labour Party councillor in the Ensom City division from 2012 to 2016, pleaded guilty on October 26.
His sentence arose from an incident along Old Harbour Road in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in which an illegal gun was seized by the security forces.
Allegations are that about 5:40 p.m. on February 10, 2019, security personnel signalled an Acura motor car, driven by Bailey, to stop at a police-military checkpoint.
In his guilty plea, he concurred with the allegations that on the day in question, he accounted for having a licensed gun. However, a search of the vehicle unearthed an unlicensed firearm.
The accused was subsequently arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.
Investigations continued and a file compiled and sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
A ruling was handed down that the former councillor be formally charged.
The matter started in the St Catherine Parish Court and was subsequently transferred to the Gun Court, where it was concluded.