Crossbow in boot of car was for control of rats, court is told as judge dismisses charges
A man who said a crossbow and arrows were used to control vermin at a skip hire business has had a charge of possessing an offensive weapon dismissed at court.
Zachary James Bates (25), of Crumlin Road near Belfast, said he had been unaware the crossbow was in the boot of his dad's car which he had borrowed to go to a hot food takeaway in Antrim town on December 11 last year.
He successfully contested the case at Antrim Magistrates' Court sitting in Ballymena on Thursday.
A prosecutor said at 9.30pm on December 11 police stopped a car at a vehicle checkpoint on the Greystone Road. The defendant was driving and in the boot a "crossbow was present with an arrow loaded" and "three further arrows" at the side.
The defendant told police if he had known the crossbow was in the boot he would have removed it before driving and the crossbow was used by his dad for dealing with "vermin," the prosecutor said.
Giving evidence in court, the defendant said his dad used the crossbow at their family skip hire business to hunt rat. In reply to the prosecution lawyer who asked if it would not have been "more efficient to just use rat traps," the accused said: "Not really, because rats are rather smart".
He said he was shocked when police produced the crossbow from the boot and denied a suggestion from the prosecutor that he could have had the weapon for his "own protection".
The defendant's father Jason Bates told the court he used the crossbow to "shoot vermin" at the skip hire site and had forgotten to remove it from the boot before his son asked to use his car.
He said an arrow had been left "sitting in the crossbow but it wasn't pulled back". He said he "put rat poison" down at the skip yard but he also used a crossbow.
Dismissing the charge against Zachary Bates, District Judge Nigel Broderick said both witnesses had given "consistent" evidence and had said one of the ways of dealing with a vermin problem at their family skip hire business was the use of the crossbow.
Judge Broderick said he found both the accused and his father "to be reliable, credible, witnesses and I believe their account and on that basis I mark the matter dismissed".