A GARDA impersonator who stopped Dublin motorists for speeding and having no lights appeared in court yesterday for possessing unlicensed firearms and child pornography.
William Derwin (41) revealed he had stopped members of the public four times while dressed as a garda, and had tried to “blag” his way out of a checkpoint in this way before he was finally caught dangerously driving a Ford Mondeo fitted with aerials to look like an official unmarked patrol vehicle.
Garda Robert Roe said Derwin was “almost proud” when he said he had more Garda-style paraphernalia at home, and “enthusiastically” showed officers his collection, which included handcuffs, a radio scanner, camouflage equipment, a Garda-style shirt, tie and gloves and a Pearse Street Garda station calling card.
Officers also discovered Derwin had three unlicensed firearms, 175 rounds of blank shotgun ammunition and about 70 images of naked and semi-naked boys, aged eight to 15 years, bound in an album. Derwin later claimed the pictures now “repulsed” him, and that he had downloaded them while discovering he was gay.
Derwin, of Dolmen Court, Poppintree, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to impersonating a garda on North Circular Road and possessing a 9mm Glock pistol, a Beretta pistol, a rifle, ammunition and child pornography at his home on November 9th, 2008. Judge Patrick McCartan noted that this was the “most peculiar case” of a man “who went slowly off the rails, leading a Walter Mitty lifestyle”.
He said Derwin was a man living a solitary existence with no family, who had difficulty forming relationships and had used the internet for sexual gratification.
He hoped Derwin had learned his lesson, and would not reoffend now his name had been added to the sex offenders’ register.
After hearing Derwin had no previous convictions and is on dialysis for four hours a day, three times a week, the judge handed down an an 18-month prison sentence, but suspended it.
Garda Roe told Michael Bowman, prosecuting, that he and a colleague spotted what looked like an unmarked official Garda car speeding around Dublin’s north inner city at 120km/h while they were on patrol in the early hours of the morning.
The vehicle stopped when the marked car activated its siren, and Derwin confirmed to Garda Roe that he was a garda “on the job”.
Garda Roe said he let Derwin go but remained suspicious of the car, sent its registration to Garda control, and pulled it over again once he’d established it was not an official car and had spotted it break two red lights at speed.
Derwin was arrested and later revealed he owned Garda paraphernalia when officers noticed he had a utility belt and firearm holster similar to their uniform.
He explained that he wanted people to think better of him, and thought they would look up to him more as a garda than in his real job at the time as security man on Trinity College campus.
Derwin described how he’d pulled a female motorist over around St Peter’s Church, Phibsboro, a few weeks prior to his arrest, and reprimanded her for not activating her fog lights. She apologised and he let her drive on.
He described an incident where he stopped a male motorist on North Circular Road for speeding, asked to see his driver’s licence, and let him off with a warning.
He said he’d bought his starter pistols, which fired blank rounds of ammunition only, in 2005 from a man in Meath, that he got the Garda badges and uniform elements in an army surplus shop, and the radio scanner in a Dublin communications store.
Garda Roe said Derwin revealed that he’d listen to Garda frequencies on the scanner and could recognise certain Garda call signs, but that he could not interrupt broadcasts or broadcast himself.
He denied ever bringing pistols out while impersonating a garda. When asked why he carried out the impersonations, he said: “Bravado. I’ve always fancied being a garda . . . it’s a self-esteem issue.”
Derwin continued that he had had to drop out of the Army after six months because of illness, and that his role model had always been a “Dirty Harry” type figure.
He initially denied the images found in his house were child pornography, but later admitted having urges to sleep with young men since the early 1990s.
Garda Roe admitted to Joseph Barnes, defending, that his client had been fully co-operative and had a good work history. Counsel submitted to Judge McCartan that his client wished to apologise in court to the gardaí and members of the public he tricked. Counsel also said the images of boys were “mi-range” in seriousness, and his client had never been involved in their distribution.