A 47-YEAR-OLD man who entered an Enniskillen supermarket with a legally-held firearm last November and posed as a police officer has received a suspended jail sentence.

Joseph Paul Murphy, from the Enniskillen area, strenuously denied impersonating a member of the police force on November 14, 2015, but was found guilty after a contested hearing at Fermanagh Magistrates Court on Monday.

The main prosecution witness in the case was the store’s night shift manager, who gave her evidence via videolink.

After being asked to outline events on the night in question, she told the court that, soon after the start of the shift, she had spoken to Paul Murphy, one of the customer assistants in the store, to tell him that she had received feedback that his work had not been up to standard on the previous evening.

She said that Mr Murphy had said OK and went about his work and “wasn’t cross”.

However, the manager said that, later in the evening, a man wearing a dark suit approached her in one of the aisles shortly after 11.30pm. The gentleman identified himself as Paul’s father and said he was “going to take him home whether Tesco liked it or not”.

The woman said that he told her he couldn’t believe Tesco were making his son work when his grandfather had passed away. The manager said she replied that if they had been informed of the death then bereavement leave would have been sorted out.

She alleged that the gentleman had then accused her of calling his son a “slacker”. She also said that he told her he had come from his work as a policeman on the Castlereagh Road.

Although she said he didn’t show any identification, she told the court that he then showed her what appeared to be a holster on his belt under his jacket. The witness added: “It appeared to me to be a small handgun. I only saw it for seconds.”

She also claimed that the man went on about being related to a few of her bosses in England, before ending the conversation by telling her that he was going to take his son home.

While she said she didn’t feel afraid at the time because she believed he was a police officer, she did contact the PSNI later with her concerns.

The manager told the court that the reason she reported it to police was that she felt the man had used behaviour that was “not becoming” of a police officer.

Setting out his client’s case, defence counsel, Stephen Mooney, said that Joseph Murphy accepted that he was the man in Tesco and did have a conversation with the manager while he had a legally-held firearm in his possession. But Mr Mooney said that his client denied at any stage saying that he was a police officer.

Meanwhile, the court also heard evidence from the duty manager who was working in Tesco on the day following the incident. He told the court that he had taken a phone call from a man claiming to work in CID in Castlereagh in Belfast regarding “harassment” of his son by the night shift manager.

The duty manager said that the caller seemed “a bit annoyed”, but was not aggressive.

Mr Mooney stressed to the court that his client had denied making the call. Later in the hearing, the barrister questioned the investigating officer in the case over the efforts made to find the source of the call.

The police officer replied that he had contacted one of the managers who told him it was “impossible” to trace the number.

The investigating officer also confirmed that the firearm the defendant had been carrying was a personal protection weapon that was legally-held.

When he took to the witness stand, Murphy told the court that he went to Tesco on the night in question to try and stop his son from leaving. After briefly talking to his son, the defendant said he had then approached the night shift manager as he didn’t want his son to lose his job over “being silly”.

He denied telling her that his son’s grandfather had died, and instead claimed that he had informed her it was his anniversary. The defendant further claimed that the manager had asked him if he was “a cop”, to which he replied: “No, I’m not.”

Murphy also denied showing her his legally-held firearm “deliberately”. He alleged that he told her he was from Castlereagh in Belfast because he had been “working there the previous week”.

While being cross-examined by the prosecutor, the defendant said that he was employed in pest control and, during the week prior to the incident, he had been dealing with an infestation at a butcher’s shop on Woodstock Road in Belfast.

When asked by deputy district judge, Terence Dunlop, whether he felt that the manager was “making it up”, Murphy replied: “She’s added two and two, your Honour, and got seven. I approached the lady to try and save his job. That was the only reason I approached.”

Ruling that he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the night shift manager had given an accurate account of events, the judge said he was “not satisfied” that the defendant’s evidence was consistent.

In mitigation, Mr Mooney said that it was the first time in 13 years that he had dealt with an offence of this type. He urged the judge to take into account his client’s lack of previous convictions and full-time employment.

Acknowledging the defendant’s “completely clean record”, Mr Dunlop said it didn’t mitigate the offending, which had been aggravated by the presence of a weapon. The judge imposed a one-month term of imprisonment, which he then suspended for two years.