Katherine, NT: Brothers Robert and David Daw jailed for sawn-off shotgun stick-up ‘meat sale’ guise

Two Katherine brothers who devised an “elaborate plan” to rob a pensioner with a sawn-off shotgun under “the false pretext of selling him meat” have been jailed.

Katherine brothers Robert and David Daw were each handed seven-year sentences in the Supreme Court. Picture: Generic

Two Katherine brothers who “devised a relatively elaborate plan” to rob a pensioner with a sawn-off shotgun under “the false pretext of selling him meat” have been jailed for seven years.

Robert Daw pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to aggravated robbery while his brother, David Daw, was convicted by a jury of the same offence following the incident in May last year.

The court heard the brothers were drinking at home in Katherine East when they armed themselves with the shotgun about 2.20am and headed to the other man’s unit.

Robert then knocked on his door, saying he “had meat for sale” and having previously bought meat from him, the pensioner opened the door and let him in.

David proceeded to strike the pensioner in the jaw.

Robert then pulled out the shotgun and pointed it at the man’s face while demanding money and threatening to kill him, saying “give me everything you’ve got”.

Thinking the gun was fake, the other man slapped it away before Robert raised it over his head and fired it into the ceiling, causing the victim to run into a bedroom where his wife and niece were hiding.

The brothers then followed him into the bedroom where they made further demands for money – and when they were not complied with, Robert reloaded the gun and again fired into the ceiling.

The victim then threw $200 cash on the floor, telling the men it was all he had, before one of them picked it up and they left the unit.

Justice John Reeves said the brothers’ offending was ‘closer in seriousness to an armed bank robbery’. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In setting a non-parole period of five years, Justice John Reeves said the offending was no less serious because it was “unsophisticated”, while noting “irrational might be a better word”.

“Those present at the unit on this morning must have been terrified by your conduct and that of your brother, entering their living space in the early hours of the morning demanding money, threatening them with violence and twice firing a shotgun into the ceiling to reinforce that terror,” he said.

“It emerged from evidence at (David Daw’s) trial that (the victim) and his wife were pensioners, (so) the $200 you stole from them must be regarded, at least in their eyes, as being of a relatively significant amount,” he said.

Justice Reeves said he did not accept the incident was akin to “the robbery of a small quantity of alcohol from a supermarket”.

“Instead, I consider it was closer in seriousness to an armed bank robbery in that it involved you and your brother acting in company using a weapon and inflicting and threatening violence on (the victim),” he said.

Originally published as Katherine, NT: Brothers Robert and David Daw jailed for sawn-off shotgun stick-up ‘meat sale’ guise