Firearm accused escapes with fine

A territorial army corporal who gave Napier siege gunman Jan Molenaar a 12-gauge shotgun, one of 18 weapons found in Molenaar's house after he shot dead a police officer and wounded two other officers and a civilian, has been fined $250 for a breach of the Arms Act.

Napier man Kevin Rollinson, 50, who lived only 200 metres from Molenaar's house and had known the gunman for 20 years, applied at Napier District Court for a discharge without conviction for supplying a firearm to Molenaar without checking whether he had a current firearms licence.

But Judge Raymond Marshall today declined the application, saying Rollinson had apparently assumed Molenaar still had a licence when he either gave or lent him the Winchester shotgun sometime after he bought it in 2003.

The shotgun was not used by Molenaar in the shooting siege on Napier Hill early in May last year but police told the court it was loaded and in "high readiness"when it was found downstairs in his house.

The judge said Molenaar's actions in May would have no bearing on any decision over Rollinson's application, nor would the fact that he did not tell police he had supplied the weapon to Molenaar, during two separate interviews with them in the wake of the siege.

Rollinson had helped police by indentifying firearms his friend had in his house, including the shotgun.

Defence counsel Phillip Jensen said his client voluntarily surrendered his firearms licence last month. Rollinson had made "a poor decision based on friendship" by giving Molenaar the shotgun without checking whether he had a licence, he said, but his action did not contribute to the subsequent fatal shooting last May.

Other weapons found after the siege, which ended when Molenaar shot himself with a pistol after a three-day armed standoff with police, included 10 rifles, six shotguns, an ex-army rocket launcher and crude explosive devices.

Rollinson, who joined the Territorials in 1987 and was promoted to corporal in 2006, has served as a peacekeeper in the Solomon Islands and in East Timor.

He was stood down by the army last October after he was charged with breaching the Arms Act.

Mr Jensen said his client's good reputation, which had been built up privately, had now been "very publicly dented".

The judge said that while any conviction could lead to a review by the army into Rollinson's continued retention, that had no bearing on today's hearing.

The relatively small fine imposed, along with $130 court costs, reflected the court's view that the gravity of the offence was at the low end of the scale.

- NZPA