WESTERN BUREAU:

The attorneys representing Constable Rahul Khourie, who was on Thursday sentenced in the western Regional Gun Court to 15 years in prison for illegal possession of firearms, say they will be taking the matter to the Supreme Court.

"Of course, I must appeal," said lead counsel Kenneth McLeod, adding that he was not in a position to discuss the case.

Justice Leighton Pusey handed down the ruling against the 31-year-old cop after he found him guilty of four counts of illegal possession of a firearm on March 12.

Constable Khourie, who is attached to the Area One Flying Squad based in Montego Bay, was sentenced to 15 years at hard labour on each count. The sentences will run concurrently.

He was arrested in December 2007 along with two other men, for whom the prosecution offered no evidence, near the Bogue Industrial Estate in Montego Bay. The three were travelling in Constable Khourie's motor car.

Three firearms found

The case presented by the Crown stated that a police team found three firearms, including a Smith and Wesson .40 pistol, a dismantled Smith and Wesson revolver and a homemade handgun, inside the vehicle. The cop's 9-mm licensed firearm was also confiscated.

During the two-week trial, which was held in camera at the Montego Bay Courthouse, it was revealed that one of the illegal guns was an exhibit in a court case.

However, the cop's attorneys, McLeod and Adrian Dayes, maintained that their client had earlier recovered the guns through a tip from an informant.

At the time of his arrest, Constable Khourie was on interdiction for allegedly discharging his service pistol at the Montego Freeport Police Station on November 27, last year, during a wake for his murdered colleague, Constable Cornel Lewis.