Anthony Gifford: Dunoon man denied bail, charged with shooting firearm with intent to murder

A man who allegedly fired more than 20 shots at neighbours and their homes, forcing a dozen police officers and six residents to take refuge, had made a bid for bail.

A man who police will allege fired multiple shots at his neighbours and their homes was denied bail due to “chilling evidence”, including notes describing his neighbours as “targets, collateral damage and innocent bystanders,” a court has heard.

Dunoon resident Anthony Gifford was refused bail in the NSW Supreme Court over his alleged attempts to murder neighbouring residents in an shooting spree on March 6 of last year.

Reading from the prosecution’s case, Justice Peter Hamill said Gifford was a 64-year-old man who had never held a criminal record.

“And yet, it seems without doubt that on March 6, 2021, he left his home at Dunoon … and shot at a number of homes occupied by people known to him and later, when police attempted to intervene, would seem to just discharge the gun again,” Justice Hamill said.

Police will allege 20 shots were fired. Picture: NSW Police.

“There is an assertion that he took part in an electronically recorded interview after his arrest, at which time he told the police he had not left his property that day and only got outside at 9 o’clock to see what all the noise was about.”

But upon investigating Gifford’s home, police officers found a number of handwritten notes, which the prosecution will allege relate to the planning of the incident, the court heard.

“The notes nominated a number of the neighbours’ names, whose houses were subject to the shooting, and words next to those names such as ‘target’, ‘collateral damage’ and ‘innocent bystanders’,” Justice Hamill told the court.

Shots were fired at neighbours’ homes. Picture: NSW Police.

Gifford’s defence lawyer, Dennis Stewart, told the court his client was in a state of delirium and not fully cognisant of his actions when the alleged offences took place.

“The defence is going to be that Mr Gifford did not have the requisite mental state at the time … to commit these acts,” Mr Stewart said.

But the prosecutor argued the charges were extremely serious and the number of handwritten notes reveal the alleged crimes were planned and premeditated.

Justice Hamill told the court this chilling alleged evidence, when compared with Gifford’s lack of criminal history, was perplexing.

“It would seem almost certain that some kind of mental health crisis occurred,” Justice Hamill said.

But he said the defence’s argument about Gifford’s mental state was “unconvincing” because of the “plain and frankly chilling evidence of planning and premeditation”.

“(The evidence) does not seem, to me, to immediately scream out as someone who was acting as an automaton, as he … systematically shot at a number of his neighbours houses,” Justice Hamill said. “Neighbours who he described as … ‘a nest of vipers’.”

Police evidence after the Dunoon shooting.

Gifford was arrested after police were called to Dunoon when they received reports of shots fired at a home on Rayward Rd and one on Duncan Rd about 9pm.

Police will allege more than 20 shots were fired, with 12 police officers and six residents “taking refuge in a nearby home and other residents instructed to remain in their homes”.

Gifford faces 17 charges, including two counts of shooting with intent to murder, one count of shooting with intent to cause serious injury, five counts of firing a gun at homes and three counts of shooting to resist arrest.

He will return to court at a later date.