A WOMAN who was caught with two handguns in her bag at Dublin airport has escaped a jail term.
Elizabeth Griffin (69), a great-grandmother, bought the guns for protection after attacks on her family by well-known Finglas criminals. She also had six bullets in the bag and three shotgun cartridges and a balaclava in her home.
When airport security spotted the weapons on an X-ray machine they assumed it was a test because of Griffin’s age.
“You sometimes reach a point where you feel you’ve seen everything, then something like this comes along to surprise you,” Judge Tony Hunt said.
“I would challenge anyone to find a more exceptional and specifically unusual case. Not to condone what Ms Griffin did, but on a human level I can understand it,” he continued. “It’s a very sad commentary over how things have become in this city in the past decade.”
The judge imposed a one-year sentence, suspended in full for one year.
Griffin, Mellowes Road, Finglas West, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a P8 semi-automatic pistol, a blank firing pistol and six rounds of ammunition at Dublin airport on April 13th, 2010. She had no previous convictions.
Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, said Griffin was flying to Birmingham to visit her sister. When she put her bag through the X-ray machine, security personnel immediately spotted the guns but thought it was a test because of her age.
She was taken aside for a search and when personnel went to search her bag, she told them to be careful. She was arrested. During interview, she said she had the guns for her protection because her son had been shot.
A follow-up search of her home revealed three shotgun cartridges and a balaclava in her bedroom. She said her family was involved in a feud with extremely serious Finglas criminals. They had shot three of her sons, shot and petrol bombed her home and burned out her son’s car. This was corroborated by Garda reports.
She told gardaí she bought the guns herself. She said people were offering her sons weapons but she would not allow it so she bought them herself for the family’s protection. She had recently been staying with a friend and brought the guns with her because she did not want anyone else to have access to them.
She said she forgot they were still in the bag and brought them to the airport by accident.
Seán Gillane SC, defending, said it was very unlikely Griffin would offend again and suggested that older people could be subject to “folly and forgetfulness”.
He said Griffin had 12 children, 30 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He added that she had lost three of her sons and her husband and asked the judge to take into account her very sad background.