Man accidentally shoots his wife

The man had finished cleaning the gun in preparation for the duck-shooting season. Photo / File

A Queenstown man has avoided a conviction for accidentally shooting his wife.

His wife suffered pellet wounds to her abdomen and arm when she walked in front of him at the moment he inadvertently pulled the trigger of a shotgun in the garage of their home on April 10.

The man, who was granted permanent name suppression by Judge Bernadette Farnan in the Queenstown District Court yesterday, had finished cleaning the gun in preparation for the duck-shooting season.

He then loaded and unloaded the weapon to familiarise himself with it as he had handled it only once before. But a round was left in its chamber after he miscounted the number of shells he had ejected.

He accidentally placed pressure on the gun's trigger as he began dismantling it, and his wife was struck by multiple pellets at a range of about 2m as she entered the garage through an internal access door.

Police later charged him with careless use of a firearm causing bodily injury.

Counsel Louise Denton said the gravity of offending was low, because the defendant had believed he was handling the gun carefully.

But prosecuting Sergeant Grant Gerken said the defendant had breached three of the seven golden rules of firearm safety: treating every firearm as loaded, always pointing a firearm in a safe direction, and only loading a firearm when ready to fire it.

By his own admission, the defendant had been tired after not being able to sleep after working a night shift, and had been wrong to think he was in a fit state to be handling firearms, Gerken said.

Judge Farnan said the man's wife did not want him to be convicted, and supported him "unconditionally and absolutely".

She partly blamed herself, and cried every week because of the emotional harm it had caused them both.

The defendant felt "profound remorse and guilt", suffered post-traumatic stress and had been diagnosed with depression.

She accepted a conviction would affect the couple's ability to travel overseas together, which they did often.

She ordered the defendant to donate $1000 to St John Queenstown, and to pay $130 court costs.