A High Court judge wants to see legislative changes that would encourage people before the court on gun charges to provide information that would help trace the origin of illegal firearms used in their crimes.Justice Christopher Birch expressed that desire on Friday as he, like several other judges presiding in the current Criminal Assizes, handed down a sentence in yet another gun-related case.Noting that there was no evidence of where the gunman before him, Kiomal Akeem Forde, got his weapon, Justice Birch said: “I yearn for the day where we may well revisit our applicable laws where we also factor in the possibility that an accused person not only hands up the firearm but gives us the line that we can trace that firearm back to where it came from. But that would await another time and more developments in the law.”Justice Birch imposed a starting ten-year jail sentence on Forde, of Crab Hill, St Lucy, for an aggravated burglary he committed at the age of 16.Given the 64 months he had spent on remand, the one-third deduction for his guilty plea, and additional deductions for the delay in his case, the convict was able to go home on Friday given that he had served his sentence.
