A Tasmanian man who fired a 3D-printed gun at a bedroom window where a five-month-old baby had been sleeping has been jailed for 20 months.
Jordan Michael Causon, 25, pleaded guilty to recklessly discharging a firearm following the incident that smashed the window of the infant’s bedroom on July 13 last year.
“Fortunately, he was not in the room at the time, but you did not know that and made no enquiries as to his whereabouts,” Justice Tamara Jago said in her passing comments on the sentence.
The court heard Causon’s partner had gone to collect her child from the boy’s grandmother, who had refused to hand him over following an argument.
When she returned with Causon a few minutes later, he got out of the car and pointed the homemade gun at the woman before firing a shot into the house.
“Having allegedly gone there to support [your partner] in the retrieval of her child, you acted in a way that had capacity to cause the child great harm,” Justice Jago said.
The pair then drove off. Police later found the 3D-printed firearm, fitted with a short metal barrel suited to .22 calibre rounds, along with various ammunition and gun parts at a property linked to Causon.
The court also heard Causon was under a family violence order and had a previous conviction for recklessly firing a gun during another incident.
Justice Jago reactivated five months of a previously suspended sentence and added it to a new 15-month term, bringing the total to 20 months behind bars.
She said Causon’s repeated illegal use of firearms was deeply concerning.
“Any right-thinking member of the community would condemn the act of discharging a firearm at, or near, a house, particularly in circumstances where you were well aware it was occupied by, at least, the complainant and the child,” she said.
The boy’s grandmother told the court she was still shaken by the incident.
“She was terrified at the time and continues to be scared and traumatised by your actions, to the extent that she has had to move out of the home where this occurred,” the judge said.
“She continues to experience nightmares and is hyper vigilant.”
Causon will be eligible for parole after serving half of his sentence.
