A Clutha man, repeatedly denied a firearms licence, fired a pump-action shotgun from his home after arguing with his ex-girlfriend, a court has heard.
Mark Logan Duffy (23), of Greenfield, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, where he was sentenced to four months’ home detention on charges of unlawfully possessing a firearm and assault in a family relationship.
The court heard police had declined Duffy’s applications for a firearms licence in 2015 and 2020, for not meeting the “fit and proper person” criteria.
On November 21 last year, Duffy informed his former partner he had dumped her property in the driveway of his address.
She arrived with a female friend early in the morning to pick up the belongings, which brought the defendant out of the house.
After a ‘‘heated’’ argument, he pushed the victim on to the concrete before throwing items at her and locking himself inside the house, the court heard.
When the woman realised there was more of her property inside, she knocked on the door.
Duffy responded by retrieving an Akkar pump-action shotgun from his wardrobe and twice discharging it out of a window into the rear of the premises.
Counsel Andy Belcher stressed it was aimed away from the women.
“How was the victim to know that?” Judge Jim Large asked.
In a statement, Duffy’s ex-partner said she feared for her life as the gunshots rang out into the rural darkness.
“It could have ended so much worse,” she wrote.
“My friend and I had no idea where you were nor where the shots were being fired from.”
She spent four days off work with a bruised tendon in her arm.
When police searched Duffy’s home a few days later, they found the firearm with eight shells and 33 rounds of .22 ammunition.
The defendant said he “lost his cool”.
Judge Large noted these were not his first convictions but there was no similar offending in his criminal history.
He granted a protection order in favour of the victim, made a reparation order of $544 and ordered the weapon and ammunition be forfeited.
