Probation Act for man who shot burglar at elderly father's farm

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a 51-year-old man from Inniskeen, County Monaghan, was given the benefit of the Probation Act after pleading guilty to unlawful possession of a shotgun without a firearms certificate. Richard Lowndes had discharged his elderly father's legally held shotgun at a burglar on 12 April 2012 at Kilsallaghan, Swords, County Dublin. The burglar, who had entered the farmhouse after claiming…