Man who pointed imitation gun at woman after not being let inside flats jailed

Sentencing Harry Bramhall Judge Graham Reeds QC said: “Groups of young men armed, or pretending to be armed, is particularly serious offending. It causes fear of violence in the minds of people.”

“When the gun was produced, it was brandished and pointed at the woman on two occasions.”

Sheffield Crown Court heard that at the time of the incident on March 26, 2022 the victim was in a foyer located at Park Hill flats, waiting for her son to return home.

Prosecuting barrister, Zaiban Alam, told the August 23 hearing how, as the woman was waiting, she saw three men she did not know – one of whom was later identified as Bramhall – attempt to gain access to the main door of the building, but it was locked to those outside.

“She did not open the door, and at that point this defendant reached into the waistband of his trousers and showed her a gun and said: ‘That’s what I thought’,” the barrister said.

"The complainant didn’t know if it [the gun] was real or not. The defendant’s friends motioned as if to tell the defendant to stop,” Ms Alam added.

As this was happening, two women exited the building and opened the door, while Bramhall and friends took the opportunity to enter Park Hill flats.

Ms Alam said the episode was captured on CCTV ‘as was another incident where the defendant produced the firearm from his waistband’ while entering the elevator.

Bramhall’s offending was reported to the police by a member of staff working at Park Hill, but his victim chose not to provide an impact statement.

When police officers went to Bramhall’s property to arrest him, they noticed his hands were ‘wet’ and 3.9mm bullets were found in his toilet, said Ms Alam, adding that more bullets were recovered in the ‘garden of the property but no firearm was found’.

Ms Alam said Bramhall, of Crown Place, Park Hill has a criminal record spanning 26 offences, two of which are for weapons offences, namely possession of a knife in a public place in 2018 and possession of an offensive weapon in 2014 when he was a youth.

Bramhall pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence at an earlier hearing.

Clarkson Baptiste, defending, told the court: “I’m told Mr Bramhall had been with a group that had been filming a rap video that day and had gone to the address concerned [for that purpose].”

He added: “In an attempt to show off to friends he produced the article concerned.”

Mr Baptiste said Bramhall’s assertion that he did not intend to cause fear of violence to the victim had delayed his guilty plea, adding that the defendant now ‘accepts’ the impact his behaviour is likely to have had on her.

Judge Reeds jailed Bramhall for 19 months.