A Napier father who accidentally fired a .22-calibre slug into his seven-year-old daughter's skull was trying to scare his son from touching the firearm, Napier District Court was told today.
The 30-year-old man, who has interim name suppression, was convicted of discharging a firearm causing injury and remanded
until July 20 for sentencing by Judge Richard Watson.
Police prosecutor Terry Singh said the man was at home with his partner and four children at about 6pm on May 12 this year when the shot was fired from an air rifle he had left on the dining room table.
He told police he had intended using the rifle earlier that day to shoot a mouse and believed the weapon was not loaded when he left it on the table. At about 6pm he was sitting at the table when his five-year-old son tried to pick up the rifle. The boy swore at him after being told he could not play with it, the defendant claimed.
The man decided to fire the rifle near the boy's head "to teach him a lesson" and did not realise a slug from the weapon had struck his seven-year-old daughter in the head until she screamed.
The girl, who was standing about two metres away beside a computer, was hit in the right temple, with the slug piercing her skull and travelling into her brain.
She was later taken to Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland in a critical condition and put into an induced coma.
The man said he did not know the rifle was loaded, although admitted he had not checked before firing it. He had also gone out twice that day, leaving the rifle within reach of the children.
His counsel, Philip Jensen, said the daughter had been very ill as a result of the accident but had since returned home.
He sought continued suppression of the father's name, saying the incident happened soon after the fatal shooting of a young child in Wanganui and there had been a "flurry" of media interest.
After a discussion in chambers, Judge Watson agreed to continue suppression, saying other matters relating to the family had been raised by counsel and suppression would be of particular benefit to the young victim. However, he said he was not sure whether it would continue beyond the sentencing date.
- NZPA
