A former bodyguard to Arnold Schwarzenegger has be

A former bodyguard to Arnold Schwarzenegger has been locked up for 30 months for storing a rifle and live ammunition under a hotel bathtub.

Dennis Rutter, 36, an ex-army corporal, has worked for a glittering array of showbiz clients including, Shirley Bassey, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf and members of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family.

But his career in celebrity protection was ended when he was found guilty of hiding a lethal .

22 firearm at Belvedere House, a hotel in Kensington, west London.

The weapon came to light after a manager at the hotel, Anthony Perkins found what he thought were seven sticks of dynamite down the side of a communal
bath at the hotel.

The building was sealed off on August 10 last year and a later search found detonators, a silencer, a rifle barrel and 55 bullets behind the bath as
well.

The body of the .

22 weapon – similar to a sawn-off shotgun – was later found in Rutter’s room.

Former Ulster serviceman Rutter stayed in the hotel because his glamorous career meant he might have to leave the country at a moment’s notice.

He admitted finding the cache behind the bath but claimed he took the arsenal to his room, examined it and later replaced it behind the bath.

Rutter, who worked on anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland during his 11 year career in the Army, said he kept the body of the .

22 weapon to disarm it.

‘In hindsight I should have reported it,’ he said.

‘I didn’t tell the police because I didn’t want to compromise the operation.

‘Its common knowledge that terrorists never come to collect items.

They send couriers, someone not known in a terrorist organisation.

‘Had the stuff been monitored and watched by a surveillance agency the courier would have been watched and followed, and they would catch four
people.

‘

The jury at Blackfriars Crown Court was shown footage of Rutter guarding Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger at the opening of Planet Hollywood in
1993.

He worked for six weeks guarding Shirley Bassey, and one of his last assignments was guarding Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 1999.

Rutter, of Hemstal Road, West Hampstead, was convicted of three counts of possessing a firearm without a certificate, possessing ammunition with a firearm certificate and possessing a prohibited
weapon on August 10.

He was cleared of one count of possessing explosives and detonators without a certificate.

Rutter originally comes from Wallasey on the Wirral.

Mr Recorder Mark West said he had to accept the ex-army corporal’s story that he stumbled the arsenal under the bathtub.

‘The jury considered there was doubt about your possession of the explosives.

‘On that basis I’m going to deal with you on the assumption you did indeed discover this cache of explosives and firearms and its component parts in or about April 2000.

‘You decided to have nothing to do with the explosives.

But you adopted and took possession of the firearm and ammunition.

‘You had every opportunity to tell the authorities about what you discovered in terms of this firearm but you chose not to do so.

‘You could also have thrown them away to prevent the possibility they fell into the wrong hands, but you did not.

‘

By leaving the cache where it was, Rutter created a risk they ‘could be put to some extremely serious criminal use,’ the judge added.

‘I regard your account you believed you disturbed a surveillance operation as untenable,’ he said.

‘I don’t accept it.

I’m quite sure you didn’t have that belief.

‘The unlawful possession of and use of a firearms is generally recognised as a grave source of danger to society,’ the judge said.

‘Such weapons can be used to take life, cause injury and used in a variety of criminal ways.

‘

The judge explained that possession of a prohibited weapon was the most serious of Rutter’s convictions.

He said the ‘makeshift’ weapon was ‘highly attractive for killing.

‘In my judgement this was a sinister weapon with no lawful purpose and which was capable of inflicting a lethal wound even at some considerable distance.

‘Together with a silencer its attraction as an offensive weapon for killing or causing injury is patently obvious.

‘

Rutter received 30 months for possession of a prohibited weapon, and 12 months concurrent for each of three counts of possession of a firearm without a certificate and one count of ammunition without a certificate.

His legal team confirmed that he will appeal the conviction.

Rutter last lived with his gay lover in Half Moon Lane, Herne Hill.

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