John Edwards: Hornsby gun club admits ‘error’ in letting killer dad in
The father who went on to shoot dead his two children was pushy and arrogant but somehow a gun club allowed him to shoot a rifle there without a permit.
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Hornsby RSL Rifle Club president Heather Smith had a “bad feeling” about killer dad John Edwards when he asked to join the club in 2016, she told an inquest on Monday.
The father who went on to shoot dead his two children was pushy and arrogant but somehow he was allowed to shoot a rifle that first day without a permit.
“An unexplainable error but an error,” Ms Smith told the inquest into the deaths of Jack and Jennifer Edwards, aged 15 and 13 respectively.
In July 2018, he tracked his children down to the West Pennant Hills home where they were hiding with their mother and murdered them. Then Edwards, 67, turned the gun on himself.
Their mother Olga Edwards, 37, committed suicide six months later.
Ms Smith said the disquiet among the local clubs about Edwards was something she had never seen before.
In early 2017, the president of the Kuringai Pistol Club had called to let her know they had declined him membership of their club because of his aggression.
NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan is investigating among other things how Edwards, with a 24-year history of violence and four AVOs or interim AVOs against some of his former wives and children was able to get a gun licence.
The inquest has heard how he and Olga Edwards separated in March 2016 and in December 2016 he began the process of getting a gun licence by applying to the NSW Firearms Registry and approaching gun clubs for membership.
He needed a so-called P650 permit to do firearms safety training prior to applying for a licence and in December he spoke to Ms Smith about joining Hornsby.
“My feeling was that he was a little bit arrogant, a little but pushy and I didn’t feel comfortable with him,” Ms Smith, who was then the club’s membership officer, said.
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He was someone she had a “bed feeling” about and she did not think he would fit in.
She said Edwards had wanted to become a member immediately.
She said she explained the process to him but had no idea until later shown records that he had gone on to shoot at the club’s ranges that same day.
Edwards had completed his P650 on which he had ticked “yes” to the question of whether he had been refused a gun licence before. He had been refused in 2010 because the required 10 years had not lapsed since one of his wives had been granted an AVO against him.
Douglass Caple, who was then Hornsby club president, told the inquest how he was at the range that day in December 2016 with a new member when he saw Edwards shooting.
Mr Caple said that when he checked Edwards’ P650 form later, he saw he should not have been shooting because of the previous AVO.
However he had signed the form “authorised to shoot” because Edwards had already been on the range.
In January 2017, Mr Caple contacted the NSW Firearms Registry three times about Edwards but was told that his P650, also known as a Commissioner’s Permit, was being “processed as soon as possible”.
On March 18, the firearms registry granted Edwards the permit to do safety training on both pistols and longarms and he was given temporary membership at Hornsby for three months to train.
Later that month, Ms Smith got a call from the president of the Kuringai Pistol Club, Drew Thornton, to let her know they had declined him any membership because of his aggression.
Ms Smith said it was almost unknown for one club to call another with concerns about a potential member.
She said Edwards had been to Hornsby four times without shooting, just standing at the back of the firing range and speaking to no-one.
He completed his safety training on April 15 and never returned to Hornsby.
The inquest has been told how he had swapped from Kuringai to St Marys Pistol Club to complete his pistol training after telling the Firearms Registry that he “didn’t get along” with the Kuringai club’s president and members.
He did not tell the registry that he had been refused membership and no-one from the registry called Kuringai to check. In June 2017, he was given a firearms licence despite his criminal record.
Edwards went on to store his two pistols and three rifles in a locker at St Mary’s.
He collected the two pistols from there the day before he killed his children.
The inquest continues at Lidcombe Coroners Court.