It sounds like something culled directly from the minds of the writers of The Simpsons,with a courtroom setting and the show’s protagonist Bart Simpson squaring off against Springfield’s joyless billionaire Mr. Burns, when a man named Bart (full name Barton) Simpson of Eccleshall, a town in Staffordshire, England, was on trial after being arrested for possessing a handgun at Birmingham Airport last May.
The judges name? Mr. Recorder Burns, of course.
Simpson was caught with a .38 revolver while going through the metal detector at the airport while trying to board a flight to Croatia. He told officials that he was having work done on his apartment and didn’t want to leave the gun—handed down to him by his “scrap dealer” father—at home with the decorators. Simpson’s intention was to leave the piece in his car, but simply forgot to remove it from his carry-on bag.
Judge Mr. Burns handed down a sentence of “12-month community order with 140 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £800 costs.” No word on whether Homer let out his “D’oh!” catchphrase when Bart was given his penalty.
Said a court worker regarding the strange circumstances…
“It’s a bizarre coincidence that Bart Simpson is actually on trial in front of Mr Burns but it’ll proceed as any other criminal case would.
“There were some eyebrows raised when the court list was published.”
Excellent.
[SWNS.com]
