Donna Sell pleaded guilty to hiding a sawn-off rifle and ammunition in house
A mother has admitted to hiding a gun and bullets in a crafty hiding spot, which police feared would be used for violence. Her co-accused’s charges have been dropped.
North & North East
Don't miss out on the headlines from North & North East. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A woman has admitted to hiding a gun and bullets in her house, which police feared would be used for violence and retribution.
Donna Maree Sell, 37, pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court last week to possessing a firearm, namely a sawn-off rifle, and ammunition.
The same charges were dropped against her co-accused, Aaron Paul Sandelance, 39.
Police attended Sell’s Smithfield home on July 25, last year.
“They located in her shed a prescribed firearm which was concealed in a pillowcase with a number of bullets,” a prosecutor said during her unsuccessful bail application last year.
“That pillowcase was in some piping that was in the top of the shed.”
The court heard police had fears of Sell using the gun for violence and retribution.
“There was reference … to a range of calls and letters where Ms Sell made ongoing threats to a number of people and those threats involved the use of a firearm,” the prosecutor said.
Aaron Fornarino, for Sell, told the court at the time she was the carer of her two children, including a severely autistic son.
Mr Fornarino told the court Ms Sell had a serious leg injury, which required surgery and was at risk of amputation if left untreated.
In the Adelaide Magistrates Court last week, Magistrate Brian Nitschke adjourned Sell’s charges to the District Court for arraignment in March.
In the same hearing, Mr Sandelance faced court for multiple domestic violence charges, including assault and threatening to kill or endanger life.
The charges, which stem from alleged incidents between September and November 2021 at Elizabeth East and Modbury, were adjourned until next month, where Mr Sandelance is expected to enter pleas.
Woman in hospital after northern suburbs stabbing
A woman has been hospitalised after she was stabbed ‘by a man known to her’ on Sunday night.
Wild street fight erupts outside shopping centre
Vision has emerged of a wild street fight between three men outside a northern suburbs shopping centre. Watch the video.