A man is facing sentence next week after admitting firearms offences arising from a police raid at his home, last year.

The case of Anthony Jackson was among a number of preliminary/plea and trial preparation hearings in cases heard at Durham Crown Court, in recent days.

Appearing at a plea hearing at the court on Tuesday (October 4), the 29-year-old defendant, of Oak Road, Easington Colliery, admitted four charges of possessing firearms without a certificate.

Two of the offences relate to air guns and two others to silencers, all recovered by police on a visit to the defendant’s home, on Wednesday October 6, last year.

One of the weapons was a 177 calibre Weirauch HW80 break barrel air rifle and the other was a .22 calibre Webley rotor model pre-charged pneumatic air rifle.

The silencers were a detachable QGS sound moderator and a detachable Whisper sound moderator.

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Vic Laffey, representing Jackson, asked for preparation of a background report to be prepared by the Probation Service prior to the defendant being sentenced.

Agreeing to the request, Judge James Adkin asked for the report to be “fast-tracked” by the Probation Service, so the defendant can be sentenced next week.

Jackson, who was told to co-operate with the drawing up of the report, was bailed to return to court, for sentence, on Tuesday October 11.

In a separate case a 60-year-old man from Bishop Auckland will be sentenced next month after admitting a single count of sexual assault on a female aged 16 or over, said to have taken place on July 21 last year.

Judge Jo Kidd adjourned the case of Stephen Lowes, of Braithwaite Street, as she would like both a psychiatric assessment and a Probation Service background report on him to be prepared prior to the sentencing hearing.

She bailed him to return to court for sentence on Tuesday November 29, when the issue of a proposed restraining order will also be addressed by the judge.

In unrelated cases in which aggravated burglary or burglary is alleged, trial dates have been pencilled in at the court, next year.

Mark Platt, 41, of High Street, Willington, denies entering an address in Boyne Street, in the town, intending to commit grievous bodily harm, while armed with a knife, on August 26.

He also denied making a threat to kill a man present at the address, on the same day, but he admitted assaulting him, causing actual bodily harm.

The defendant was bailed to return to court for his trial, on Wednesday February 15, on condition he does not contact the complainant either directly or indirectly, in the intervening period.

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Two young defendants, with no previous offences on their record, are facing trial for an alleged burglary at a property in Longnewton Street, Seaham, entering as trespassers with intent to do unlawful damage, on June 12 last year.

Dylan Dodds, 20, and 18-year-old Cameron Ernest Towers, both of Windermere Road, Seaham, denied both that charge and a further alleged offence of causing criminal damage to doors, windows, ornaments and a tv set belonging to a woman.

The court was told neither defendant accepts attending at the address.

Both defendants were bailed, on condition they don’t contact prosecution witnesses, to attend for trial on March 23.

Read next:

               County Durham man put recovered stun gun in carrier bag in loft

               County Durham couple jailed for 'overreaction' to dispute

               Man hid crossbow in his wheelchair

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