Dooralong: Jon Justin Worrell pleads guilty to firearm, crossbow offences after DV incident

A drover, who threatened to shoot his girlfriend if she broke up with him, has been sentenced after police seized multiple guns, ammunition and a crossbow.

A drover wasn’t being “cheeky” when he threatened to shoot his girlfriend after an argument and nor was he “lazy” or “inexcusably negligent” with the way he stored his guns, a court has heard.

Instead, Jon Justin Worrell was just “someone who just didn’t care” about his responsibility as a gun owner and “terrified” his poor girlfriend, a magistrate has ruled.

The 53-year-old was sentenced to 12 months jail with a non-parole period of six months on Wednesday after pleading guilty to 15 offences including possessing prohibited weapons without a permit, failing to keep firearms safely and intimidation.

Worrell has been sentenced to a minimum of six months in jail.

Magistrate Aleksandar Mijovic said it was “incredulous” to suggest Worrell was just being cheeky when he threatened to shoot his girlfriend given there were “guns lying around” and his lack of responsibility was “extraordinary”.

“I’m told `be kind to him, he’s been lazy’,” Magistrate Mijovic said.

“He’s crossed the threshold for custody, there’s no alternative. This is top end offending.”

Worrell’s solicitor Roland Day had sought a non-custodial sentence, telling the court Worrell’s character references spoke of an “otherwise upstanding member of the community” who used guns simply as “tools” on rural properties.

However Magistrate Mijovic said the penalties for failing to keep guns safely were “that severe” because the danger to the public was so significant.

He also sentenced Worrell to a two-year community corrections order for intimidating his girlfriend.

PREVIOUSLY FROM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15

A man threatened to shoot his girlfriend and bring other people “down with me” when she broke off their relationship because of ongoing arguments, a court has heard.

Jon Justin Worrell, of Dooralong, was not required to appear via video link at Wyong Local Court on Thursday where his solicitor entered pleas of guilty on his behalf to 15 offences including possessing prohibited weapons without a permit, failing to keep firearms safely and intimidation.

An agreed set of facts states the 53-year-old drover had been in a relationship with a woman for six years when they began arguing about how to raise children.

In early May the couple had a verbal argument at their Dooralong Rd address when the woman said they should end their relationship.

Worrell did not have to appear via video link at Wyong Local Court on Thursday. Picture: file

The facts state Worrell became upset and pleaded with the woman to stay and he would “change his behaviour”.

The victim said she would give the relationship a second chance and Worrell responded “good, because if you’d broke up with me I would have shot you”.

This shocked the woman but given they had just agreed to move forward, she believed Worrell wasn’t serious.

Two weeks later they had another argument and the victim ended the relationship, with Worrell sleeping in a spare room before leaving early the following morning for work.

He arrived home shortly before 1pm on May 20 and they got into another argument.

“I’m going to pull the trigger and other people are going to go down with me,” Worrell told her.

The woman became scared for her safety because he had access to guns. Generic image.

Given what he said two weeks ago this made her “extremely fearful for her safety” because she knew how easily he could access guns, the facts state.

“The victim states that the accused keeps four firearms unsecured in the bedroom of their house,” the facts state.

“One rifle in the corner of their bedroom, two rifles in the cupboard of their bedroom and a sawn off shotgun in the top drawer of [his] bedside table.”

The woman reported the threat to Wyong Police Station with officers returning to the couple’s address where she gave them permission to search the house for firearms.

Officers found four unsecured rifles in a shed on the property along with a crossbow.

Later that evening Worrell presented to Wyong Police Station where he agreed to be interviewed and told police he had a quantity of ammunition stored in his truck parked outside the station.

Police seized a crossbow, similar to this one pictured here.

He also told them he had packed a pistol he usually kept beside his bed when he left the house following the argument and it was at a friend’s caravan at Little Jilliby.

Worrell also told police about a double barrel shotgun, which was lawfully registered to him, kept at another property at Waukivory, near Gloucester.

Local police attended the property and found the shotgun unsecured on the top shelf of a back shed.

The facts state Worrell denied threatening the victim but officers played a voice recording of him threatening her earlier in the day and while he agreed it was their voices on the recording he “could not say why he said it”.

Worrell did not apply for bail and it was formally refused for him to reappear at court tomorrow, June 15, for sentence.