Shot in his swag: Illegal spotlighting leads to trauma

Andrew Papanicolaou was shot while lying in his swag at Tallarook State Forest.

Sore point: Andrew Papanicolaou, who was shot while sleeping, urges hunters to remember their training when using firearms. Picture: Zoe Phillips

WHEN Andrew Papanicolaou crawled into his swag on December 8 last year, his thoughts were only on stalking his first deer in the morning.

But he didn’t even get to raise a rifle in the Tallarook State Forest, where he was camped. Mr Papanicolaou was instead woken at 2.30am by the echo of a rifle shot.

It was only when he lay down again that he felt the impact of a second bullet slam into his leg, fragmenting into tiny pieces as it drove into his abdomen.

“It was a hollow-point that exploded inside me,” Mr Pap­anicolaou said.

The shot was fired by Joel Kipping, who was illegally spotlighting in the state forest.

“He thought my swag was deer or fox,” Mr Papanicolaou said. “He then tried to run, but got bogged and had to be winched out.”

A mate and a nearby camper called for help and the police. But when the case went to Seymour Magistrates Court last Thursday, Mr Papanicolaou was stunned that Joel Kipping was handed an 18-month 180-hour community corrections order. “I would have liked to see him get some jail time,” he said.

But in the end Mr Papanicolaou said he wasn’t out to incite a witch hunt, calling instead on all hunters to follow the rules they learnt when they completed their firearms licence.

“It’s a lesson for all of us to understand what can happen when something goes wrong,” he said. “That it’s not the firearm, but the person behind it that makes mistakes.”

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Seymour police prosecutor Seargent Jimmy Harvey said the magistrate took into consideration Mr Kipper’s early guilty plea and that he had no prior convictions. “His solicitor put forward that he himself (Kipper) had significant mental issues, because he had realised what he’d done.”

Mr Harvey said he understood Mr Kipper had also been banned from holding a firearms licence for life. But that does little to comfort Mr Papanicolaou, who still has bullet fragments embedded throughout his leg and lower abdomen, spent three months off work recovering from his injuries and has his own mental health issues.