Cawarral’s Jacob Vincent Starr in court for possessing firearms, ammo and drugs

Police made some unexpected discoveries after they were urgently called to the home of an ex-miner, who has finally appeared in court after five days in the watchhouse.

Police have responded to an incident at Cawarral on Friday morning.

A former miner has been sentenced for his possession of a cache of guns, discovered by police after his wife called them to their Central Queensland home when he threatened to commit suicide.

After five days in the Rockhampton Watchhouse, Jacob Vincent Starr appeared in court on ten charges, including possessing ammunition, drugs and drug utensils.

The 45-year-old was found unarmed outside a shed at his Cawarral property on Friday morning, July 26, after his wife called police at 8.25am at his request, Rockhampton Magistrates Court heard on July 30.

Police prosecutor Acting Sergeant Sarah Rowe said Starr’s wife told emergency services her husband had threatened to kill himself with a firearm.

She said police found Starr exit the rear of a shed, but he was not in possession of any firearms.

Sergeant Rowe said police searched the property, finding a centre-fire rifle in a cupboard in the front of the shed along with a self-loading centre-fire rifle in a black bag with an upper and lower receiver separated.

Starr also had a firearm in a bucket of honey and another in the kitchen pantry.

“In a further plastic bag next to the rifle, police located two 30 round magazines taped together containing 5.56 millimetre ammunition,” she said.

“In the rear of the same cupboard, police located the bolt and spring assembly for the centre-fire rifle.

“In a bucket of honey at the rear of the shed, police located a revolver centre-fire pistol that was loaded with six rounds.”

Sergeant Rowe said the serial number had been ground off.

Police located a break action air rifle on the rear patio of the dwelling which was not registered to Starr or anyone else.

They also located a double barrel break action shotgun in the kitchen pantry with a belt containing live shotgun cartridges, fireworks in a cabinet on the front patio and a large amount of unsecured ammunition.

A bucket containing marijuana in the rear room of the shed, along with a large quantity of marijuana seeds on the table, was also discovered.

Police have responded to an incident at Cawarral on Friday morning.

Sergeant Rowe said 400 grams of marijuana, about 85g of seeds and 9.6g of magic mushrooms were located, along with a glow light and home-made bong.

Defence lawyer Grant Cagney said his client had not made threats to anyone.

He said Starr had worked in mines as a rigger until a workplace accident which still caused him difficulties and had prescriptions for pain medications.

Mr Cagney said his client had four operations since he stopped work in 2017 to try and fix the injury.

He said Starr had been “working like a dog” preparing the Cawarral property for sale and the family were intending to move to Innisfail where they have another property that’s due to settle soon and plans to grow fruit trees in the tropics.

“He placed too many expectations on himself when he burned himself out,” Mr Cagney said.

“He says his family tried to assist at home but he feels like he pushed them away.

“He’s just finding this period of his life very difficult to manage.

“He made no threats to anyone else… in fact, he was the one who told his wife to call police because he knew how he was feeling mentally.

“This effectively was his rock bottom.”

Police have responded to an incident at Cawarral on Friday morning.

Mr Cagney said there are no weapons left at the property, his weapons licence has been suspended and Starr plans to move in with a friend at Marlborough while he addresses his mental health issues.

Starr pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing a category D weapon, possessing a weapon with the serial number defaced, possessing an unregistered firearm, failing to securely store firearms, unlawful possession of explosives, possess a thing reasonably suspected used in a drug offence, possessing drug utensils and three counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

He had spent five days in the watchhouse since his arrest.

Acting magistrate Paul Byrne said it was clear Starr had hit rock bottom and that drugs and weapons were a terrible and dangerous combination.

“Fortunately you didn’t pull the trigger, but you were pretty close,” he said.

Mr Byrne said the smartest thing Starr did was tell his wife to call the police when he identified his mental health had become an issue.

He placed him on probation for 15 months and convictions were recorded.