A magistrate has gone against a police push for a Maiden Gully man to be jailed for shooting at a jet-skier on the Murray River.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Richard Funston decided instead, in what he accepted was an unusual exception, to place him on a bond without conviction.
The 52-year-old was holidaying on the river, staying on his house boat moored at Moama, when the victim and a group of mates began to annoy him.
More news:
He repeatedly asked the victim that afternoon to stop acting so dangerously.
He feared his nephew's girlfriend, who was learning to water-ski, was in danger of being struck.
But after being told to stop, the victim abused him.
The man retrieved from the house boat an under-over, double-barrel shotgun, used for clay target shooting, that he had taken from his gun club for cleaning.
He loaded the gun, went out to the back of the boat and fired directly into the area the victim had only just passed in his jet-ski.
Police said the victim did not realise the shot had been fired.
Related story: Man charged after allegedly shooting at jet skier
The victim did a U-turn and again went past the house boat, attracting a repeat shot.
The man's friends reported the incident to police.
Defence barrister Sue Kluss submitted the man be placed on a conditional release order without conviction.
But police prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Pike said the offending was such that the threshold for jail clearly had been crossed.
Any jail sentence would have to be served as full-time custody, as living in Victoria meant the man could not serve an intensive corrections order in the community.
"He's got himself involved in a situation and it's escalated," Sergeant Pike said.
"I accept the other group was behaving appallingly."
Other news:
But Sergeant Pike said it was only the man, certainly not the victim, who knew the clay target shot was emanating from his firearm.
"They (the shots) were never going to hit the person on the river, but he didn't know that," he said.
"He's going to be dealing with that for the rest of his life."
The man was handed a 12-month conditional release order, without conviction.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter @BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram @bendigoadvertiser
- Join us on Facebook
- Follow us on Google News