A FORMER PSNI officer "caught red handed'' in an undercover police sting has admitted trying to buy a gun over the 'dark web'.
Allen Kennedy, whose address was given as c/o Strandtown police station in east Belfast, pleaded guilty at Downpatrick Crown Court to possessing a 9 mm Russian pistol, 10 rounds of 9 mm ammunition and a silencer on September 5, 2016 with intent to endanger life.
The 31-year-old also pleaded guilty to possessing 102.24 grammes of cocaine with intent to supply.
Kennedy also admitted possessing 30g of cocaine at a house in Newtownards, Co Down, along with 50 diazepam tablets and 10g of amphetamines.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice by crashing his BMW car in March 2014 in Bangor, Co Down and then deliberately setting it on fire.
A prosecution barrister told Downpatrick Crown Court that Kennedy used the "dark web" to try and buy the gun from two undercover police officers.
The court was told that Kennedy made contact with a man on the 'dark web' called 'Ally' who he believed could provide him with a firearm "but who was in fact an undercover police operative''.
Kennedy later met one of the undercover officers at Annadale Embankment to buy the firearm in September last year.
Seconds after handing over the money, he was surrounded by armed officers and arrested.
During follow-up searches, police seized cocaine, cannabais and other drugs with a street value of £10,000, both from his car and his parents' home.
They also found a total of 50 x 9 mm "dumb dumb'' cartridges - more normally used in "big game hunting''.
Kennedy claimed at police interview that he tried to buy the gun as he was going to take his own life by shooting himself.
But the prosecutor told the court that this was not accepted by police who regarded Kennedy as a "low level commercial drug dealer'' who had bought the gun for his own protection in the drug world.
He said that the aggravating factors in the case was that Kennedy was at the time a police officer and was on bail for perverting the course of justice by crashing his car and burning it on Bangor's Crawfordsburn Road in March 2014.
Kennedy claimed he was not the driver at the time of the crash, claiming his jacket, wallet and car keys had been stolen.
But a scientific examintion of his diesel BMW car showed that the door lock was intact and that person who set it alight was "forensically aware'' and had left all the doors open in the vehicle to make sure it was burned.
Kennedy's lawyer said he was now remorseful for his actions and said he accepted that he faces a "substantial custodial sentences'' for his crimes.
He told the court that Kennedy's life had gone into a "downward spiral'' when he was struck by a stolen car while on duty and spent six months on sick leave after sustaining a fracture to his right foot.
Judge Piers Grant said he would pass sentence in two weeks time.
