Showdown at Bowhill: Man attacks intruders with baseball bat in incredible video that resulted in a jail sentence

ASTONISHING footage of an enraged man attacking a carload of trespassers — first by firing a warning shot and then smashing up their car as family members armed with baseball bats stalk the intruders — has been released by an Adelaide court.

A MAN fired a gunshot and used a baseball bat to attack a car containing three trespassers in a wild confrontation between two family groups that was filmed by the victims.

Frederick Denis Cameron was jailed for two years and 10 months over the incident at a farm at Bowhill — near Mannum in South Australia’s Murraylands — on February 24.

Cameron can be seen on the video chasing down the vehicle while wielding a baseball bat moments after firing a .22 bolt-action rifle into the air.

District Court Judge Gordon Barrett said both sides bore some responsibility for the dramatic incident, which stemmed from an alleged road rage incident between Cameron’s son and the car’s occupants the previous day.

Judge Barrett said the men had trespassed on to Cameron’s property “to photograph the car on your property that was involved in the incident the day before”.

Instead, the men gave police mobile phone footage of a black Holden sedan speeding past them along the stubble of harvested paddocks, heading their vehicle off as it approached the house.

Frederick Denis Cameron seconds before he swings the baseball bat at the car trespassing on his property.

Cameron can be seen alighting from the car and retrieving the rifle from under a jet ski parked in a shed, then firing a single shot into the air.

Despite the chaos, the intruders remain on the scene as an enraged Cameron hurls abuse and smashes windows of the car, and three other men also try to reach the vehicle armed with bats and a crowbar.

After taunting Cameron that police would be seeing the video, the men drive away with several shattered windows — as a final gunshot rings out behind them.

Judge Barrett said Cameron, who had a criminal record in Victoria dating back to his teens, then lied repeatedly to police about the origin and whereabouts of the rifle.

Frederick Denis Cameron and another man approach the car armed with baseball bats.

One of Cameron’s sons initially backed his lie that the victims had brought the rifle on to the property.

“You persuaded him to tell the police that, by telling him that family had to stick together and that if (his sons) did not lie for you that would be the biggest mistake of their lives,” Judge Barrett said.

“In his statement to the police, (one of your sons) said that he was more scared of you than he was of getting into trouble with the police.”

Days later, the son came clean and helped police find the rifle 3km from their home — and Cameron was arrested and charged.

Cameron’s offending was more serious because of a lengthy history of assault and weapons convictions, and a 2014 offence of possessing a crossbow and unregistered sawn-off shotgun.

Frederick Denis Cameron fires a rifle into the air as the car approaches.

Judge Barrett said Cameron claimed the shotgun in the 2014 arrest was for “target practice” and to put down injured or distressed sheep, and was handed a suspended sentence.

“No one seems to have said anything about how unsuitable a sawnoff shotgun would be in putting down a distressed sheep or (for) target practice,” Judge Barrett said.

He jailed Cameron, whose angry outbursts increased when drunk, for two years and 10 months. His 18-month non parole period will expire in August next year.

Originally published as Showdown at Bowhill: Man attacks intruders with baseball bat in incredible video that resulted in a jail sentence