Widow faces five-year term for gun in safe A WIDOW is facing a five-year jail sentence after a thief broke into her home and stole a gun belonging to her late husband. Kathleen Woodward home was ransacked by an intruder and when she reported the theft immediately told police that among the property stolen was a handgun, which sparked a major operation to find the weapon. The thief who stole the gun, which was inside a cashbox, Guy Whitelaw, was jailed for five years after admitting illegal possession of the prohibited weapon, although his sentence was quashed on appeal. Parliament has laid down that a minimum of five years imprisonment be imposed, unless exceptional circumstances can be shown. Whitelaw, 29, later had his jail term cut to six months resulting in his immediate release. Woodward, 64, admitted possessing the prohibited weapon, a Harrington and Richardson seven-shot revolver, and banned ammunition at her home at Burdshaugh, Forres, Moray, on 19 March last year, when she appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday. Advocate depute Iain McSporran told the court she was a volunteer with a cancer charity and added: "She has been a law-abiding citizen throughout her life." He said an experienced detective involved in the case said she appeared to have been "a victim of circumstances." The prosecutor said she left her bungalow secured to go shopping with a granddaughter, but returned to find she had been the victim of a break-in. Mr McSporran said a safe, which contained the cash box holding the gun, was opened and the box was gone. Whitelaw was interviewed by police and revealed knowledge of the gun and he later took them to the rear garden of a house in Forres where the weapon was found under a tuft of grass. He revealed that after he discovered he had stolen the gun when he got away from the crime scene he decided to bury it "because I can get five years straight away for it." The gun was found to be corroded and damaged but was in working order and could fire bullets. More than 500 hollow point rounds were also recovered from the safe. Mr McSporran said: "Mrs Woodward is described by the police as having been extremely anxious at the theft of the gun and hugely relieved by its recovery. She co-operated fully with officers throughout. He said police were at pains to point out that she seemed entirely honest to them and their assessment was that she simply left the items where her late husband, who died in 1999, left them. He held shotguns under a firearms certificate but had no authority for the revolver. She told officers the gun had been in the safe "forever" and would have been put there by her husband. She was aware of it but had nothing to do with it. She said: "I didn't "keep it" so much as I didn't get rid of it." The judge, Lady Stacey, deferred sentence for the preparation of a background report.