When they arrived at her home police saw Stewart, who was the holder of a firearms licence, and her daughter run through the house and out a side door towards an area of bush. The defendant was carrying a bucket containing a single-barrel shotgun that had been cut down into a pistol, and was broken down into three parts, the butt, stock and barrel.
Six more firearms were found in a cabinet in the house. Ammunition of various calibres, including about 50 shotgun rounds, was also found, along with 32g of cannabis head material, 84g of cannabis leaf and hundreds of seeds.
Stewart told police that she had found the shotgun a short time earlier and had intended to throw it down a bank so police would not find it, as she knew it was illegal. The cannabis was for her own use.
Judge Gibson accepted that the pistol was not Stewart's, but it had been in her possession. It was significant that it had been broken down into three parts, he added.