Hobart shooter receives suspended jail term for backyard target practice with silenced rifle

A Tasmanian woman who admitted using a silenced sawn-off rifle to fire at a target located in a Hobart backyard has been sentenced to a suspended prison term.

Chloe Monique O’Brien, 24, appeared in the Supreme Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of recklessly discharging a firearm following an incident in Hobart’s northern suburbs last year. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

A Tasmanian woman who admitted using a silenced, sawn-off rifle to fire at a target located in a Hobart backyard has been sentenced to a suspended prison term.

Chloe Monique O’Brien, 24, appeared in the Supreme Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of recklessly discharging a firearm following an incident in Hobart’s northern suburbs last year.

Justice Stephen Estcourt said when O’Brien was offered the opportunity to shoot the illegally shortened and unregistrable .22 calibre rifle – which was fitted with a crude silencer fashioned from a plastic cordial bottle – she had made the “foolish” decision to do so.

Justice Estcourt said that although the defendant had only had the weapon for a few minutes, she had discharged it in a residential setting and in the vicinity of a public park.

“It was a very dangerous act and a highly illegal one,” His Honour said.

O’Brien - who also pleaded guilty to summary charges including possession of a shortened firearm, not holding an appropriate licence, and using a silencer - was convicted of all counts and sentenced to one month imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition she be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months.

Originally published as Hobart shooter receives suspended jail term for backyard target practice with silenced rifle