Luke Fitzgerald: Chatswood man convicted over gel blasters, grenade

A domestic violence incident led police to discover an arsenal of prohibited firearms, including look a-like sub machine guns and a hand grenade.

A Chatswood man with a long history of domestic violence acquired “an arsenal” of illegal firearms and a fake hand grenade, a court has heard.

Luke Fitzgerald, 31, has pleaded guilty to 16 counts involving the unlawful possession of look a-like weapons after a domestic violence call out led police to discover a stash of ‘gel blaster’ guns.

The court heard police entered Fitzgerald’s house last October after his wife called to report Fitzgerald had “ransacked” their home.

Upon entering the house, police soon noticed “a number of weapons” lying in plain sight, which Fitzgerald’s wife described as nothing more than “toys”.

Luke Fitzgerald leaving Hornsby Local Court after he was convicted on all 16 charges.

Police found eleven gel blaster weapons: five assault rifles, two Glock 19 pistols, one sub machine gun, one long rifle, one shot gun and one imitation hand grenade.

In court, the prosecutor said these weapons are illegal in NSW because they can cause serious harm.

“They look like firearms, they look so realistic … (and) they can still cause harm,” the prosecutor said.

Fitzgerald’s defence lawyer James Drewett described his client as having “gone on a rampage” before police entered the home.

But Mr Drewett argued there was no evidence Fitzgerald ever used these weapons and said the gel blasters belonged to a man from the Philippines, who had stayed in Fitzgerald’s home.

Mr Drewett also noted the two months Fitzgerald had spent behind bars and said his jail time was particularly onerous because of Covid-19.

Luke Fitzgerald outside Hornsby Local Court.

But Magistrate Christopher Longley said a custodial sentence was inevitable and compared Fitzgerald’s case to someone who is caught importing drugs.

“(Drug dealers overseas) give drugs to someone who is naive and they often get caught at the airport,” he said.

Mr Longley described Fitzgerald’s stash of gun blasters as “an arsenal” of firearms.

“Hardly a day goes past in our society, regrettably, where a report with firearms isn’t filed,” he said.

Fitzgerald was convicted on all 16 counts of possessing prohibited weapons and storing these weapons unsafely.

For his crimes, Fitzgerald has received a ten month jail sentence, to be served in the community by way of an intensive corrections order.