Convicted Leeds gun minder caught with antique 'Tombstone' pistol handed five years' jail
A man caught with a century-old antique pistol has been handed a five-year mandatory jail sentence.
Ryan Semeniuk was previously jailed for possessing a gun buried in a garden.
But shortly after 8am on November 8, armed-response officers targeted a home on Pleasant Terrace in Holbeck carrying a search warrant, Leeds Crown Court heard.
He was not home, but during a search they found a Colt Thunderer double-action revolver from the 1800s under his bed.
Prosecutor Joel Wootten said extensive tests were carried out on the pistol, which was capable of firing, not with the trigger but by cocking the hammer.
It also required specialist ammunition.
Days later Semeniuk was arrested at a caravan site in Skegness by armed police.
During his interview he told police it had been given to him by a relative. He said he looked at it and just threw it under his bed.
The 33-year-old admitted possessing a firearm. He has previous convictions including GBH, making threats to kill and the gun offence from four years ago, when a pistol was found buried in a garden in Gildersome.
Mitigating, Giles Grant described the gun under his bed as an “obsolete antique”.
He said it was the same make and model that Val Kilmer used while playing Doc Holiday in the 1993 movie, Tombstone.
He said that it was not loaded, not produced and there no evidence Semeniuk intended to use it.
Mr Grant conceded it was aggravated by his previous gun conviction, but described it as being in “very different” circumstances.
Judge Alex Menary said the weapon was “viable” but did not necessarily work.