Garda impersonator convicted on firearms, child porn charges
A serial garda impersonator who stopped Dublin motorists for speeding and having no lights has been given an 18-month suspended sentence for possessing unlicensed firearms and child porn.
William Derwin (aged 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 told colleagues he had more garda type paraphernalia at home and “enthusiastically” showed officers around his extensive 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 became more concerned when they discovered Derwin had three unlicensed firearms, 175 rounds of blank shotgun ammunition and around 72 images of naked and semi-naked boys from eight to 15 years old downloaded onto A4 photographic paper and 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 porn at his home on November 9, 2008.
He has no previous convictions and is currently on dialysis for four hours a day, three times a week.
Gda Roe told Mr Michael Bowman BL, prosecuting, that he and a colleague spotted what looked like an unmarked official garda car speeding around Dublin’s north inner city at 120kph 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 Gda Roe that he was a garda “on the job”.
Gda Roe said he let Derwin go but remained suspicious of the car, sent its registration to garda control to confirm its status and pulled it over again once he had established it was not an official vehicle and had spotted it break two red lights at speed.
Derwin was arrested at the scene and later revealed he owned a cache of garda paraphernalia when officers noticed he had a utility belt and firearm holster similar to their official 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.
He said he would sometimes walk along Sean McDermott Street dressed in uniform, attract attention from local youths who would salute him as a garda and whom he would salute back.
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. The girl apologised and he let her drive on.
He described another incident where he stopped a male motorist on North Circular Road for speeding, asked to see his driver’s license and let him off with a warning.
He said he had 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 bits of uniform in an army surplus shop and the radio scanner in a Dublin communications store.
Gda Roe said Derwin revealed that he would listen to garda frequencies on this radio scanner and could recognise certain garda call signs, but that he could not interrupt broadcasts or broadcast himself.
He denied ever bringing his pistols onto the streets while impersonating a garda.
When asked why he did this he replied: “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 porn but later admitted having urges to sleep with young men since the early 90s.
Gda Roe admitted to Mr Joseph Barnes BL, defending, that his client had been fully co-operative, had a good work history and had asked no sexual favours from civilians he’d stopped disguised as a garda.
Counsel submitted to Judge Patrick McCartan that his client wished to apologise in court to the gardaí and members of the public he had tricked.
Counsel further submitted that these were “midrange” images on the scale of seriousness and his client had never been involved in their distribution.
Judge McCartan noted that this was the “most peculiar case” of a man “who went slowly off the rails leading a Walter Mitty style life”.
He said Derwin was a man living a solitary existence with no family, with difficulty forming personal relationships and who had used the internet for his sexual gratification.
He added that he hoped Derwin had learned his lesson and that he would not re-offend now his name has been added on the sex offenders register.
