The UK’s South Yorkshire Star reports that Andre John Hulse was plagued by burglars and vandals invading Low Lock Cottage, his “idyllic canalside cottage next to the River Don.” Speaking to melud at Doncaster Crown Court, Prosecutor Nicholas Neale said two young men (“respectable types”) started fishing nearby. “Hulse appeared, shouted abuse at them and then went back into his house for a shotgun which he fired twice above their heads. Police recovered three legally-held shotguns and a starting pistol from the cottage and the judge ordered the cancellation of his firearms certificate.” Fair enough you say? “Judge Patrick Robertshaw said the use of weapons in response to a grievance had reached epidemic proportions and sentences had to act as a deterrent. He added: ‘Whatever your problems in the past, it was a shotgun deliberately discharged by you twice in the general direction of two law-abiding individuals.'” Unless I’m missing something, some piece of prior history not revealed in this article, oh em gee. Mate.
