Paania Lawrence: Gold Coast woman jailed for ‘accidentally’ shooting partner dead in 2018

A Gold Coast woman who “accidentally” shot her partner dead during a tetchy evening of drinking has learnt her fate in court.

A Gold Coast woman who intentionally shot her boyfriend in the back in 2018 – but didn’t mean to kill him – has been jailed and likely faces deportation to New Zealand upon her release from prison.

The Supreme Court of Queensland was told that Paanice Frauline Lawrence, then 39, took a gun from her adult son’s room and shot and killed her partner, 46-year-old demolition worker Scott Morrison, during a tetchy evening of drinking.

The New Zealand-born Ms Lawrence, also known as Paania, and Mr Morrison had been consuming beer together at her Waverley St home in Southport for a number of hours between January 2 and 3 in 2018 when simmering hostilities between the two escalated at around 2am.

Paanice Lawrence aka Paania Lawrence is escorted by detectives after the shooting death of her boyfriend on the Gold Coast in 2018.

Following a series of “belittling”, “niggling” and “smart-arse” remarks from a “smug” Mr Morrison, Ms Lawrence went to her adult son’s room to seek his assistance.

Her son and his pregnant partner were asleep, but Ms Lawrence found a shotgun and returned with it to the loungeroom, where Mr Morrison continued to verbally abuse her from another room.

Ms Lawrence – who had asked Mr Morrison to leave – sat with the gun for some time when he made a move to retrieve more beer from the kitchen.

She then fired the weapon while his back was turned, killing him.

The scene at the Gold Coast home of Paanice Frauline Lawrence after she shot and killed her partner in January 2018.

Ms Lawrence later told police that she was unfamiliar with firearms, it was dark and she was intoxicated and also believed that if she aimed low enough, the blow to Mr Morrison’s back would not be fatal.

The court was also told that the incident came after numerous incidents of domestic abuse during the six-month relationship, with Ms Lawrence reporting that Mr Morrison had previously punched her in the head and burned her with a cigarette.

“It’s my house, he just hit me all the time, I didn’t mean to,” she reportedly said to authorities at the time of the shooting.

Justice Paul Freeburn on Friday accepted that while Ms Lawrence had knowingly armed herself and shot a defenceless Mr Morrison, she had not intended to kill him, although the fact she had sat with the firearm for a fair while removed the mitigating aspect of impulsivity.

However, he also noted that Ms Lawrence called triple-0, did not deny she had been the one to shoot Mr Morrison and stayed with him until paramedics arrived. She had also been extremely co-operative with police during the investigation.

Ms Lawrence has already served four years in prison. Picture: Facebook

Also working in her favour was a guilty plea to the manslaughter charge, which had been downgraded from murder, as well as a “constellation” of mitigating factors that included mental health issues and extensive exposure to violent relationships in the past.

Ms Lawrence – who appeared in the Brisbane court via videolink – was sentenced to nine years prison.

Given she has already served four years, this means she is eligible for parole in four to five months.

That said, the court acknowledged the 43-year-old New Zealander likely faced the cancellation of her Australian visa when she is released due to failing the character test.

Her children and grandchildren all live in Australia.

In a victim impact statement, Morrison family friend Nicole McCrae lamented that the flurry of media coverage of the incident had not reflected Mr Morrison as a human being.

“He was kind and easygoing and didn’t like to make too much fuss about anything,” she said.

“He wasn’t perfect, but who is?”

Ms Lawrence also apologised to Mr Morrison’s family.

“I am genuinely and sincerely sorry to Scott‘s family and friends,” she said.

“I wish it was different.”