Convicted killer back in jail after gun found at Hemel Hempstead home

Jamie Harrowell, now 33, was convicted of fatally stabbing another teenager in 2002.

He was sentenced to six years’ detention at the Old Bailey after being cleared of the murder of Benjy Wright, 17, in Ealing, but convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation.

St Albans Crown Court heard that on January 23 this year the police searched his former home in Melsted Road in Hemel Hempstead.

Four bullet cases were found in a shopping bag, along with gunpowder.

Officers forced open the safe and discovered a modified Italian revolver that was wrapped up in a sock. There were 32 blank ammunition rounds and an ammunition mould.

Prosecutor Alexandra Kettle-Williams said: “It was a working firearm, but in a poor condition.”

Harrowell, of St Leonard’s Close, Sandridge, appeared for sentence on Thursday (October 18) having been convicted of possessing a prohibited firearm.

He said he knew nothing about the gun and that others had been applying pressure on him.

The judge was told that Harrowell had 23 convictions for 53 offences, including the manslaughter conviction for the fatal stabbing which happened when he was aged 16.

Defending, Sarah O’Kane said: “It was a revolver manufactured to fire blanks and discharge blank cartridges. It was in poor condition and did not operate normally.

“Only single shots could be fired and it had the energy of an air rifle.”

She said Harrowell was a vulnerable individual who suffers from a severe form of post traumatic stress disorder.

Jailing him, Judge Michael Kay QC said: “There was a considerable amount of evidence that linked you to the gun and to the contents of the safe.

“It looks like there were the beginning of attempts to manufacture ammunition to fit the gun.”

The judge added: “You are a vulnerable individual. You have not told the full story.

“Having seen you – there is very likely to be others involved. You may just have been a guardian of the weapon – I am inclined to accept that.”

The safe, the gun, mould and ammunition are to be forfeited.