Man to appear in court on Minehead handgun charges

A MAN in his 40s has been charged in connection with a police hunt for a gunman in Minehead last month.
Forty-one-year-old Paul Bradley, of no fixed abode, is due to appear before West Somerset magistrates to face two charges.
Bradley was arrested when police were called to the Irnham Lodge Medical Centre, in Townsend Road, Minehead, after a two-and-a-half-hour search for a man reported to have been seen with a handgun in the Market House Cafe, in The Avenue.
He has now been charged with possessing an imitation firearm in a public place and also with failing to surrender to police or court bail.
Bradley is due to appear in the magistrates court in Minehead on Friday, November 16.

EXCLUSIVE: Police hunt for gunman in Minehead

POLICE mounted a large-scale manhunt for a gunman reported to be at loose on the streets of Minehead on Monday, October 15.
Armed response units and additional officers were drafted into the town after reports that a man with a handgun had been seen in a cafe in The Parade, Minehead, at about 10.30 am.
At one point, police blocked the main A39 road into the town to prevent the suspect from escaping.
More than two-and-a-half hours later, shortly after 1 pm, police were called to the Irnham Lodge Medical Centre, in Townsend Road, Minehead, where they arrested a 41-year-old local man.
The man was taken into custody on suspicion of possession of an imitation firearm.
He was later released on police bail while further inquiries into the circumstances were being carried out.