A lawyer for a man accused of possessing a loaded firearm during a Cup Match victory celebration argued that prosecutors had failed to prove he knew he had the weapon.

Victoria Greening, counsel for Jaron Roberts, said that it was not disputed that a loaded firearm was found in her client’s backpack.

However, she argued that the jury could not be certain that he was aware the gun was there.

Ms Greening said that while prosecutors had used his resistance to being arrested to suggest he had knowledge of the weapon being in the backpack, she argued that it fell short of that mark.

“It’s not uncommon for people to get upset when they are told they have warrants and would be arrested,” she said.

“It’s not uncommon at all for people to not want to get arrested on a holiday, on Cup Match.”

Mr Roberts, 31, has denied charges of possessing a firearm and ammunition in connection to an incident on July 31, 2021.

The St George’s resident was also initially charged with violently resisting arrest. However, the jury has been told that charge has been changed to simply resisting arrest.

Making her closing arguments in the Supreme Court yesterday, Ms Greening said that Mr Roberts told the jury he had no idea the firearm was in his backpack and that the first time he had seen the weapon was in court.

She added that because her client did not know how the gun came to be in his backpack, he could offer little explanation.

The defendant told the court that before his arrest he had briefly left the Louis Vuitton bag unattended near Clearwater Beach, the lawyer noted.

“He told us that he put his bag down while he was at Clearwater so it wouldn’t get damaged while he was doing tricks on his bike,” she said.

“That window of opportunity is very important along with the lack of forensic evidence.”

Ms Greening noted that there was no DNA or fingerprint evidence linking the defendant to the weapon.

She also argued that if Mr Roberts was aware he had a firearm, it would make no sense for him to drive near police with no licence plate on his vehicle or to stop for officers.

Cindy Clarke, Director of Public Prosecutions, said that the jury should be able to feel sure about the defendant’s guilt.

She said the defendant had every reason to lie about his knowledge of the firearm on the stand and that his explanation about how it could have got into his bag made little sense.

“He says he took the bag off and rested it near a crate because he didn’t want to get it damaged while he was riding; and yet it didn’t even cross his mind someone might steal it,” Ms Clarke said.

“He is asking you to believe that some unknown person saw his valuable bag, opened it, took out the empty sandwich container, put the firearm in it, closed up the container, put it back in the bag, zipped the bag up without the defendant or anyone else seeing.

“You might say that’s possible, but possible isn’t good enough. It has to be rational. It has to be logical.”

She questioned how the unknown person expected to retrieve the gun if the defendant had no knowledge of it.

Ms Clarke also challenged Mr Roberts’s claims that he felt harassed by the police, urging the jury to watch the police body camera footage. She questioned why the defendant did not simply let the officers look in his bag if he believed it only contained an empty sandwich container and a balaclava.

“He knew full well that the firearm was in that sandwich container in that backpack,” she said.

“There is no other reason or explanation for his behaviour. There is no other reasonable explanation other than the possession of that loaded firearm.”

During the trial, the court heard Mr Roberts was stopped by police on the afternoon of July 31, 2021 as officers escorted a motorcade held to celebrate Somerset’s Cup Match victory.

While Mr Roberts was initially ticketed for traffic offences, the court heard that officers warned him he would be arrested over a warrant.

He briefly resisted being handcuffed but then began to struggle against the officers after they questioned him about the contents of his backpack.

A search of the bag revealed a blue balaclava and a plastic sandwich container, which held a firearm loaded with three rounds of ammunition.

The matter is expected to go to the jury for deliberation today.

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