Mother with BB gun 'grabbed it instead of tissue'
A mother claimed she was reaching for a tissue when she pulled a BB gun from her handbag, a court heard.
Rhona Hocking ‘forgot’ the imitation firearm was in her bag when she rushed out of her West Bromwich home to her son’s aid.
The 44-year-old, who lied to probation officers about having leukaemia, said she stumbled across the pistol when moving home and did not remember she left it in a bag.
But Judge Simon Ward rejected her tale and said her account was ‘hard to believe’, so summoned the defendant into the witness box to convince him otherwise.
Taking the stand, Hocking said: “I wanted a tissue. The gun was in there and I pulled it out by mistake. I had a cold.
“The bag has been in the cupboard, I ain’t used the bag.”
Hocking, who has two carers, told Wolverhampton Crown Court her son phoned asking her to come to the Daggers Lane care home he was staying at.
She recalled picking a handbag from the cupboard before leaving her home in Withers Way at about 4.20pm on August 6 last year.
When quizzed by the judge, she claimed she had more than one purse and mobile phone, picking up a handbag she believed both were in.
Judge Ward said: “I don’t believe that you picked up an old bag from the cupboard not knowing that there was a BB gun in it.
“I believe that you took it down there because you were worried about your son.
“However, the way that you have given your evidence has made me realise that you are somebody who has more difficulties in life than I had read in the pre sentence report. I think you lie quite a lot.”
He went on to say he thought Hocking brandished the BB gun to frighten a care home resident arguing with her son.
But he decided to hand her a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, claiming a jail-term would cause her to ‘suffer unduly’.
The judge added: “When someone takes an imitation firearm to a care home and points it at somebody else, they should go to prison – and in almost any other case, that would happen.
“I’m taking an exceptional decision in your case, but for the obvious learning difficulties and the problems that I have seen, you would be going straight to prison.”
Mr Mukhtar Ubhi, defending, said Hocking’s health issues would become ‘exasperated’ if sent to custody.
Hocking, who was also handed a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement, admitted possessing an imitation firearm.
