Qld dad Christopher Anderson shot dead at Gailes home for standing up to home invaders, court hears
An Ipswich father was shot dead because he chased after a group of home invaders including the killer gunman who had robbed him, a court has heard.
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An Ipswich father was shot dead because he stood up to a group of home invaders including the killer gunman who had robbed him and was trying to make good his escape, a court has heard.
In his closing address to the jury Crown prosecutor Greg Cummings said Larkin Dwayne Moffatt shot dead Christopher Anderson seconds after the alleged victim left his home giving chase to the group with a shovel.
“He shot him in the chest at close range intending to kill him or do him some grievous bodily harm,” Mr Cummings said.
“He did so because Mr Anderson stood up for himself. He did what he was lawfully entitled to do, to pursue these men and try and recover property which was stolen from the house. Moffatt has pleaded not guilty to murder and enter premises with intent while armed in company on July 10 2021 at Hailes.
Brisbane’s Supreme Court has heard Moffatt, his brother Markiss Graham Moffatt-Cleary, Aidan Eden Pascoe and Shaun Jason Birt attended Mr Anderson’s home on the day in question.
Birt was unhappy with the amount of methamphetamine he had been indirectly supplied by Mr Anderson’s partner at the time Felicity Torrens a few days prior, the court heard.
CCTV footage shows the group approaching Mr Anderson sitting on the patio of his home before going inside to fetch Ms Torrens.
Mr Cummings said the footage showed the group walked on the property with heads down perhaps aware there was a camera.
“This was always going to be we will take what we want,” he said.
Things escalated and the group entered the home uninvited and tensions flared with Pascoe firing his 410 shotgun, that had been down his pants, into the loungeroom wall after Ms Torrens had grabbed a baseball bat to try and get them to leave, the court heard.
The shotgun blast penetrated the wall which on the other side was the bedroom of Mr Anderson’s young child.
Mr Cummings said Pascoe wasn’t “on a frolic of his own.”
“(Moffatt) went in to the kitchen with Pascoe and stole,” he said.
Footage showed Moffat running out of the home with a pair of Nike Air Jordans and a bottle of Bundaberg rum and “cash went missing” the court heard.
As the group fled the home Mr Anderson can be seen giving chase with a shovel.
“They weren’t running from Mr Anderson they were running because they had completed their objective,” he said.
Seconds later Mr Anderson was shot dead with a single bullet entering his chest and puncturing his heart, the court heard.
In her evidence Ms Torrens claimed all of the men who came into the home except Birt, who later armed himself with a baseball bat according to the CCTV, had pulled out firearms in the home.
Other evidence heard in court was that Pascoe was the only one who took a firearm into the house and Moffatt had left his rifle in the car.
Mr Cummings said there was evidence to support Ms Torren’s claim including Pascoe himself who agreed under cross examination that Mr Anderson was “out of control” because he was chasing “people” with guns while only armed with a shovel.
The Crown allege Moffatt shot Mr Anderson with a .22 calibre.
“About a week ago, I opened the prosecution case, and I told you this was a straight up case for murder. All that has changed in my submission to you is the evidence has now proved that, beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Moffatt, dressed in a dark suit and sporting a long mullet that’s mostly been tied into a ponytail during the trial, shook his head several times throughout Mr Cumming’s closing address.
Pre-empting potential arguments by Moffatt’s barrister Victoria Trafford-Walker that her client was acting in self defence or defence of another or unwilled act or provocation Mr Cummings said they were “fantastical” positions.
Ms Trafford-Walker hit back labelling the “four second window theory” - the Crown contention that Mr Anderson was shot within four seconds of leaving his property - as “ridiculous and inherently dangerous”.
About 15 minutes into her closing address a relative of her client burst into the court.
“Love you my nephew,”he said loudly.
Ms Trafford-Walker attacked the credibility of key crown witness Felicity Torrens saying she had admitted to lying on a sworn police statement.
She said Ms Torrens was the only Crown witness who had Moffatt with a gun in the house while the other “clear evidence” showed he had left it in the car.
Ms Trafford-Walker said there was no evidence that anyone knew Pascoe had taken a gun into the house until he pulled it out and they were shocked when he used it.
“Every plank of the Crown case falls away because he (Moffatt) didn’t take the gun into the house. He only used it when he and his friends were being attacked by Mr Anderson at the car,” she said.
“The very clear evidence and all the inferences to be drawn are that there was no intention on the part of Larkin Moffatt to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Christopher Anderson.”
In relation to the burglary charge Ms Trafford-Walker said there was no evidence Moffatt had entered Mr Anderson’s home to steal or assault saying he was simply helping a friend - Birt- collect a drug debt.
“Moffat just wanted to help his friend. I suppose you might think that it’s a bit of a sketchy situation because drugs were involved but that doesn’t make the plan any different,” she told the jury.
“Larkin left the gun in the car, which clearly indicates a lack of intention.”
She claimed Mr Anderson unleashed an “uncontrolled and wild attack” fueled by an “unstoppable rage” as he chased the men with a shovel.
“There’s no attempt to get items back. What there was, was an attempt to get revenge, a desperate need and desire to injure and harm these men,” she said.
Ms Trafford-Walker asked what her client could have done with Mr Anderson lashing out at people, including one with a gun, with a shovel as she argued a self-defence case.
“Larkin Moffatt was trapped in the car with this man leaning in on him, leaning in towards the car at the very least, and punching and hitting him with a shovel. You might think Larkin Moffatt had no other choice,”she said.
Ms Trafford-Walker also raised a defence of provocation saying Moffatt was only 21 at the time and might have lost control in response to Mr Anderson’s conduct.
Lastly she raised the defence of unwilled act pointing to a possible tussle over the gun between her client and Mr Andersonat the car and Moffatt’s comment later that night to his brother that he thought he had “accidentally shot him”.
She asked the jury to find Moffat not guilty of burglary, murder and manslaughter.
But Crown prosecutor Greg Cummings labelled the defences raised by Ms Trafford-Walker as “contradictory, unrealistic and fantastical”.
“If he’s acting in self defense he can’t have lost his temper and lost control, it’s one or the other,” Mr Cummings argued.
Mr Cumming said Moffatt couldn’t argue self-defence, except in limited circumstances, if he had provoked Mr Anderson.
“ The defence have spent most of this trial painting Mr Anderson as someone who’s very angry and you might think he was because these four men have come into his house, nothing to do with him, right, they’ve blown a hole in the wall,” he said.
“And then after they do that they go into the kitchen and they help themselves and Mr Moffatt here helps himself to his Air Jordans and a bottle or rum.
“Now ladies and gentlemen of the jury (Mr Anderson’s) being provoked.”
Mr Cummings said Moffatt in that situation could only argue self-defence if the assault upon him caused a reasonable apprehension of death or GBH.
The court heard that on his arrest a number of days later Moffatt told police he didn’t have any injuries.
Ms Trafford-Walker said he may have been concerned about other things at the time and had not been examined by watchhouse staff but did request a panadol.
“The fact that there is not evidence of terrible injury sufficient to warrant the watchhouse calling in the Queensland Ambulance does not mean that he’s not injured in this incident,” she said.
Justice Lincoln Crowley will begin his summing up on Monday.
Originally published as Qld dad Christopher Anderson shot dead at Gailes home for standing up to home invaders, court hears
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