Josh Addo-Carr: Storm winger given good behaviour bond for firearm and COVID charges
Melbourne Storm winger Josh Addo-Carr has escaped conviction for flouting COVID-19 and firearm laws during a weekend away at fellow NRL player Latrell Mitchell’s property.
Mid-North Coast
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NRL superstar Josh Addo-Carr has been spared a conviction by a magistrate who conceded he did not know the seriousness of his offending when he fired a rifle for target practice at fellow NRL player Latrell Mitchell’s property last year.
Addo-Carr appeared at Taree Local Court on Friday where he was sentenced to 12-months good behaviour, with no conviction, for the unlawful use of a firearm.
The sentencing comes three months after Mitchell received a non-conviction, and almost a year after the pair were charged following a now-infamous boys weekend away at Mitchell’s property at Caffreys Flat, west of Taree, at Easter.
The court was shown the same vision of Addo-Carr holding and firing the rifle, that was played at Mitchell’s sentencing for unlawfully permitting him the use of his firearm.
It showed Addo-Carr pointing and shooting the firearm in the direction of empty bottles located on Mitchell’s property, which was ravaged by the Mid-North Coast bushfires in late 2019.
His lawyer, Elias Tabchouri, said there was “nothing deliberate or intentional” about the NRL player’s offending.
“A couple of his family members were doing it tough at that time, and they went to Latrell’s property to try to connect with culture again,” Mr Tabchouri said.
“The bottles were used as targets, and that whole farm had been burnt down by fires in the area.”
Mr Tabchouri said his client did not know he was doing the wrong thing.
“When you have someone on a country property who has never fired a firearm before, with the person who is licensed and knows the law and he tells him he can do it, then he should honestly believe he can,” he said.
He said that on parity, Mitchell’s offending would have been at the higher end of the scale, given he was the registered and licenced gun holder who had granted Addo-Carr permission to use it.
“One would have to say that they’re [the registered gun owner] liability has to be higher, because they’re the ones who have jumped through the hoops to get their license. Parity [with Mitchell’s case] is a significant matter.“
Mitchell avoided a conviction for his role in unlawfully permitting Addo-Carr use of his firearm when he was sentenced in November.
Magistrate Allison Hawkins said it would have been “unfair” to punish Addo-Carr, given the sentence handed down to Mitchell.
“I have no doubt you have worked very hard to get where you have in life, and with that comes an extraordinary level of scrutiny,” Ms Hawkins said.
She accepted that he wasn’t fully aware of the consequences of sharing the footage of him holding the rifle on social media, which gained significant media attention and drew major public criticism.
“You would accept it probably wasn’t a good look posting it to Instagram,” she said.
“If you had have known that what you were doing was the wrong thing then you wouldn’t have done that.”
Addo-Carr also pleaded guilty to failing to comply with Ministerial orders relating to COVID-19 movement and travel restrictions, to which he also received a non-conviction and 12-month good behaviour bond.
Ms Hawkins said flouting the rules by attending Mitchell’s property at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April was “insulting” to people who were doing the right thing.
“In relation to the COVID matter you would understand that 2020 was a difficult year and especially in April there was some difficulty around the movement of people,” she said.
“You really hadn‘t appreciated at the time that it was the wrong thing to do to have such an adventure in circumstances where the community was suffering.
“But having regard to your age and no criminal history, this is a way that can be dealt with by a manner of ticket and it is the same penalty [as the firearm charge].
“I am confident that we will not see you back here, and I hope we do not.“
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