Marcus Alexander Wotton-Kerr (27), carpet layer, of Clifton, admitted presenting an air rifle at a person in Invercargill last year when he appeared before Judge John Brandts-Giesen in the Invercargill District Court yesterday.
The summary of facts says Wotton-Kerr was awoken by loud music from a nearby address about 2am on October 10 last year.
He went over to the neighbours who lived across the road and entered the garage where the victim and her guests were.
"The defendant confronted the occupants angrily and intimidated them by yelling and hitting the garage walls with his hands, telling them to turn the music off," the summary stated.
The party-goers agreed to turn the music off and he started to walk home.
He then went back to his house where he got a Ruger air rifle, taking it to the middle of the road then pointing it at the victim’s address with it up against his shoulder, the barrel pointing towards the victim.
The victim then asked the defendant if it was a gun.
He replied, "yeah it is, what are you going to do about it?"
Police later found the air rifle concealed in a hallway cupboard when they executed a warrantless search at Wotton-Kerr’s address.
Judge Brandts-Giesen said to Wotton-Kerr yesterday that although it was frustrating when children were woken up, he knew what he did was wrong.
Taking out a firearm, even if it was an air rifle, could do a lot of damage as people might not recognise it for what it was, Judge Brandts-Giesen said.
"They may well bring out something else and everything escalates from there."
He sentenced Wotton-Kerr to 40 hours’ community work and ordered destruction of the firearm.
