Coroner calls for shotgun law loophole to be closed after schoolboy's tragic death
A coroner is calling on the Home Office to close a loophole in the law regarding shotguns kept at a licence holder's second home following the tragic death of a public schoolboy.
Jairus Earl, 15, killed himself with his dad's shotgun at their Dorset holiday home in the midst of feeling stressed and anxious over his GCSE exams. Philip Earl had taken his guns from the family home in London for the break in the countryside for clay pigeon shooting. The Dorset coroner, Rachael Griffin, has now written a prevention of future deaths report over concerns that licence holders are not required to inform the authorities when taking shotguns from one property to another.
This is far less stringent than the regulations surrounding firearms where possession of every gun must satisfy 'individual good reason'. The inquest heard during the Easter half term break a distressed Jairus went missing from the family's cottage near Sherborne.
When police officers visited the property on March 28, 2024 they were unaware that shotguns were being kept inside. Mrs Griffin said that had they known the shotguns may have been removed from the property which could have prevented the tragedy.
On April 14, as the family prepared to return to London where Jairus was to take his exams, he went into his father's office. He shot himself with one of the guns while Mr Earl, 56, was outside packing the car.
In her report Mrs Griffin said: 'I have concerns in relation to gaps in the regulation of shotgun licences especially when a licence holder has more than one property where the guns may be used or stored. There seems to be a great deal of difference in the regulation of firearms and the regulation of shotguns, however both can equally cause death. There is no obligation on a licence holder of a shotgun to notify the approving force they are moving to or visiting another property.
'I therefore have concerns there is a lack of a system of sharing and flagging information between police forces and the location of shotguns, which could lead to future deaths. Accordingly, emergency services may attend an address where shotguns are held without knowledge of that fact due to the lack of a marker being placed on the address.
'This causes a risk to all those attending unmarked addresses as they would potentially be ill prepared for what they could face which could lead to future deaths.'
She has now written to the Home Office and Health Department who have 56 days to respond to her concerns.
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'There's going to be riots within the next six weeks, mark my words,' said one man, a builder in his 40s from Stepney. 'They've brought them here because they think Canary Wharf is secure. But what they don't realise is Tower Hamlets will not have this. It will escalate into a war,' he said, his voice rising. 'Epping set an example,' he added. 'It showed that as a community if you stand together you can make your voice be heard. The rhetoric of protesters seems to match up with the reality of increasingly inflamed tensions this summer. Earlier this month, migrants in Gravelines lobbed Molotov cocktails at French police, reportedly using fuel siphoned from the very dinghies they intended to board for Britain. A spate of sexual assaults and other violent crimes by illegal migrants stoked public frustration at an asylum system that appears impervious to reasonable adaptation. The protest remained fairly civil until the arrival of counter-demonstrators from Stand Up To Racism, an organisation open about its collaboration with the Socialist Workers Party. Divided by the road, the two groups screamed abuse at each other: 'paedophile protectors!' met with a reply of 'racists!' One female activist reminded me of someone I had met while reporting on the Bibby Stockholm barge, who furnished migrants aboard with toiletries, pens and maps. Earlier this month, one of its occupants was convicted of assaulting a teenage girl on a beach, telling her he'd 'never been this close to a white woman'. As I spoke to another far-Left activist, an egg splattered on the pavement between us, lobbed from the balcony of a luxury apartment building next to the hotel. The first 15 or so floors are reserved for affordable housing. South Asian residents in Islamic attire gathered on balconies to watch the scene. Inside their separate entrance, the only visible signs were an 'Eid haircut price list' and a notice warning residents not to hang clothes, toss cigarettes, or display flags or banners from their windows. Apartments there can cost millions. According to one resident, their Saudi neighbour is 'furious' at the decision to place the migrants next door, and the occupant of the penthouse flat is rumoured to have decided to sell up. Canary Wharf was once lauded as a turning point in Britain's post-war decline – 'a citadel of finance,' as Reuters put it, 'atop once-derelict docks.' It stands as a crowning accomplishment of the Thatcher years. But London is no longer the unquestioned centre of international finance. Canary Wharf appears now to be sliding back to its pre-regeneration state, blighted by empty commercial lots and chintzy stores that never seem to have customers. Residents of luxury residential buildings will live side by side with asylum seekers, just as the rest of the country is expected to. Amidst the pomp of Canary Wharf's creation, Margaret Thatcher warned that 'where there is no vision, the people perish.' She no doubt had the glittering financial district just across the river in mind. Today we need only look at the Britannia Hotel.
