Rifle that killed Bailey Davenport most ‘unsafe’ a ballistic specialist has ever seen, Hayden Dove trial hears
Pictures of the century-old rifle that killed 21-year-old Bailey Davenport in a forest have been revealed, with a court hearing it was held together by pieces of wedged cardboard.
Police & Courts
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A forensic expert who has examined thousands of guns in his career has labelled the rifle that killed Bailey Davenport one of the most unsafe he has ever seen.
The Winchester, which is between 86 and 113 years old, misfired seven times during testing and was held together by pieces of cardboard wedged between the stock and barrel.
The firearm has become a central piece of physical evidence in the trial of Hayden Dove Fenton, who was charged with manslaughter after the accidental shooting of Mr Davenport on July 23, 2017.
The pair had been camping with friends in Parawa Forest, near Victor Harbor, when Mr Davenport was shot in the head. He later died in hospital.
Fenton told police when interviewed that the gun had come from a farm in Cobar in NSW, resulting in more than 100 guns being seized from the property and the owner, Alan Brands, being jailed.
Ballistic specialist Michael Tobiasen told the Supreme Court the firing pin in the gun, which was from a different model, was damaged from the gun being misused and fired without being properly loaded.
He said the firearm was poorly maintained, had rust on the barrel and a worn stock.
But most dangerous was a broken spring within the gun and a loose screw, which meant the gun could misfire even if handled carefully.
“It was to the stage that this firearm is probably one of the most unsafe I have examined in my time,” Mr Tobiasen said.
“The actually operation of the gun actually works quite nicely. Everything works the way it should other than the modified firing pin.”
Mr Tobiasen tested the gun by loading it without a bullet and dropping it from 45cm three times. Each time the gun misfired.
He also loaded the gun and tapped the barrel, the receiver and the stock of the gun with a mallet. Again, the gun misfired all three times.
Even when the gun wasn’t cocked it misfired once.
Mr Tobiasen said the flaws with the inner workings of the gun were not apparent from the outside.
A person using the gun would not have been aware it was prone to discharging, he said.
Fenton told police the gun came from a farm in Cobar, a rural town 700km northwest of Sydney.
The property was owned by Mr Brands, a family friend of the Davenports, who had played host to Fenton, Mr Davenport and other members of his family, and friends in May 2017.
In the weeks after the shooting police searched the remote property, locating 118 illegal rifles, shotguns and revolvers along with thousands of rounds of ammunition and gunpowder. There were also legal registered firearms on the property.
Mr Brands said the vast majority of the unregistered guns had belonged to his father, who had been a collector.
The only reason they were not registered, he said, was the cost of registration.
“If I have one unregistered firearm I might as well have 100,” he told the court.
“My dad never threw anything anyway and I inherited that – with pride.”
Despite the size of the collection, which included similar Winchester rifles, Mr Brands insisted the gun that killed Mr Davenport had not come from his property.
“When you look at the parent of a child that has been killed and say ‘the gun did not come from me’, that is hard, but it did not come from me” he said.
“I am not a bad person, never have been, never will be.”
Mr Brands received a discount from the courts for co-operating with the Fenton investigation.
He was served nine months in prison for illegal firearm possession.