Littlehampton shooting: Tetraplegic found not guilty of attempted murder

A man has been found not guilty over a bizarre incident in an Adelaide Hills garage, where he allegedly shot his ex-partner’s new lover — who retaliated with an axe, rendering him a tetraplegic.

The accused shooter, in a wheelchair, with his supporters at the Adelaide District Court. Picture: Image AAP/ Mark Brake

• Defence claims victim’s account is ‘flawed’
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A man who was charged with shooting his ex-partner’s new lover — before the lover retaliated with an axe and rendered the man a tetraplegic — has been acquitted of attempted murder.

The wheelchair-bound man was on trial on the Supreme Court for the alleged shooting in a Littlehampton house, in the Adelaide Hills, on October 2017.

The jury of six men and six women took three hours on Friday to come to a unanimous verdict, finding the accused not guilty of attempted murder and the alternative charge of aggravated causing serious harm with intent to cause serious harm.

The man’s supporters were all smiles following a four-week trial.

Stephen Ey, speaking on behalf of the tetraplegic man and his family, said justice has been secured.

“It’s been a long and harrowing journey, and this is only round one,” he said.

“(We’ve) got to recover some compensation for what he’s had to suffer.”

None of the three people involved in the love triangle — who had lived together before the man moved out — can be identified due to the suppression orders in this case.

The court heard the man had lured the alleged victim into the garage to show him his gun collection before shooting the lover in the stomach with a Winchester Model 70 bolt action repeater-rifle.

Bloodied towels at the scene of the shooting in Littlehampton. Picture: AAP / Brenton Edwards

The alleged victim previously told the jury as the accused turned to presumably reload the firearm, he fell and reached for a tool, then swung repeatedly at the accused.

Forensic evidence showed the man was struck eight times in the neck with an axe, rendering him paralysed from the neck down.

Prosecutor Lucy Boord previously told the court the alleged victim “fought for his life and in defence of his life”.

But during defence closing submissions, Marie Shaw, QC, for the accused, said the alleged victim’s account was “flawed”.

Ms Shaw said forensic evidence showed the alleged victim was shot from at least 3.6m away and suffered a wound “unlikely to have incapacitated him straight away” while blood spatter evidence put the alleged victim near the garage door, from which he could have escaped.

“Why does (the alleged victim) tell a story that is so at odds with the forensic evidence?” Ms Shaw asked the jury.

The court has previously heard the ex-partner had also been involved with another woman she met through a dating app, who then moved into her home in the weeks after the violent incident.

The Littlehampton woman had denied she and the other woman were in a relationship, or that there had been a plan to suffocate the man, despite the other woman being spotted outside the accused’s room at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre.

Originally published as Littlehampton shooting: Tetraplegic found not guilty of attempted murder