Clayton Backman jailed for 15 years over two shootings in one month

A man who shot two unarmed men, leaving one dead and the other with lifelong pain, will have to serve at least 12 years of a 15-year sentence.

A man who fatally shot his girlfriend’s unarmed ex-partner in an excessive act of self-defence, a month after shooting another man, has been jailed for 15 years.

Clayton David Backman, 31, was sentenced to seven and a half years’ jail for the manslaughter of Lesley Brooks, 31, at Tingalpa, on November 17, 2016.

He was sentenced to an extra seven and a half years’ jail over the shooting of another man, at a Sunnybank Hills caravan park, on October 17, 2016.

Facebook image of alleged Tingalpa shooter Clayton Backman

“These are terrible crimes with tragic consequences, not only for the victims, but also for their family and friends,’’ Justice Paul Freeburn said, during the Supreme Court sentence.

Backman, who had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, burglary at night while armed and in company and malicious act with intent, will have to serve 80 per cent of the 15-year sentence before being eligible for parole.

But the five and a half years he has already spent in custody counts as time served on the sentence.

Backman, who has been in solitary in prison for almost three years, was handcuffed and had his legs shackled, with two prison officers sitting either side of him in the dock, during his sentencing.

Backman also pleaded guilty to serious assaults of prison officers and a prison nurse, and a range of other offences, and was given lesser concurrent jail terms.

Crown prosecutor Mark Green said the Crown accepted that at the time Backman fired the gun at Mr Brooks, he did not intend to kill him nor cause him grievous bodily harm.

The Supreme Court heard Mr Brooks’s ex-partner and mother of his two children had left him after a nine-year relationship involving domestic violence.

Mr Green said in early November, 2016, Mr Brooks turned up at his ex-partner’s house and found her in bed with her new boyfriend, Backman.

Shooting victim Lesley Brooks

Lesley Brooks’ mother Caroline Krezic

The woman told Backman that Mr Brooks had later been violent towards her, chased her down the street and threatened to kill her, himself and their son, and slashed her car tyre.

On November 17, 2016, Mr Brooks barged into the woman’s house, with their young son, and pushed his ex-partner, who was with another child, out of the way, saying: “Who the f--- is this fellow. Who the f--- is he?”

Backman came out of another room with a shotgun, pointed it at Mr Brooks, telling him to take it outside, the court heard.

Mr Green said Mr Brooks, who was described as “raging’’, told Backman: “You’re not going to shoot me”, as he kept moving towards him.

He said Backman kept backing away, up to the back fence, and when Mr Brooks got close enough to grab the gun, he shot him in the abdomen.

Mr Brooks died in hospital from multiple injuries to major blood vessels and organs.

A few hours later Backman called triple-0, saying he was outside Brisbane’s Roma St watch-house, with a firearm down his pants, and wanted to hand himself in.

Mr Green said it was accepted that Backman fired the gun, after he had backed away from Brooks, after the other man kept coming at him.

The Crown accepted Backman fired the gun out of fear or panic, but he used excessive force in defending himself.

Mr Brooks’s mother, Caroline Krezic, told the court since her son’s death she cried every day and still ate and slept in her son’s old room.

Mrs Krezic said she had suffered anxiety and depression, she repeatedly relived the day she was told her son was dead and would grieve for the rest of her life.

The court heard a month before the fatal shooting Backman went to a Sunnybank Hills and shot a man who occasionally dealt drugs, who had been sleeping in a caravan.

Mr Green said the unarmed victim, who was shot in the left side of his chest, spent almost three months in hospital, had multiple surgeries and later suffered multiple strokes.

In a victim impact statement the man spoke of the intense pain he still felt from bits of shotgun pellets embedded in his heart, lungs, muscle and bone.