A young mother has avoided jail after firing an illegal sawn-off rifle fitted with a homemade silencer in a suburban backyard in Hobart’s northern suburbs, just metres from a public park.
Chloe Monique O’Brien, 24, was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania after pleading guilty to recklessly discharging a firearm.
The court heard O’Brien had never handled a gun before the incident at her brother’s Bridgewater unit in June last year.
She was handed an unregistered .22 rifle – modified with a crude silencer made from a plastic cordial bottle – and asked if she wanted to take a shot.
O’Brien agreed, firing at a target 10 metres away in a backyard that backed onto a reserve stretching towards the East Derwent Highway and Herdsman’s Cove.
Justice Stephen Estcourt described the incident as “a very dangerous act and a highly illegal one”.
He rejected defence submissions that O’Brien’s culpability sat at the lower end of the scale, noting the shooting occurred in a residential area close to public land.
However, Justice Estcourt acknowledged she had held the weapon for only one to two minutes.
The court was told O’Brien endured a traumatic childhood marked by physical abuse and neglect and was often left alone without food while her mother disappeared for months at a time.
She was removed from her mother’s care at the age of seven and later raised by her father.
Now a single mother to a five-year-old daughter, O’Brien lives in public housing and relies on government payments.
Her defence counsel urged the court to impose a fine, citing her difficult upbringing and limited involvement with the firearm.
Justice Estcourt declined, instead handing down a one-month jail sentence, wholly suspended for 12 months.
O’Brien will avoid prison provided she commits no further imprisonable offence during that period.
She also pleaded guilty to possessing a shortened firearm, possessing a firearm without a licence and using a silencer.
