Bar shooter’s guilty plea

Lawyer to request drug treatment order for Pablo gunman

THE lawyer for a man who fired a gun into the door of a Hobart cocktail bar has told a court his client’s drug use meant he was “not functioning in a normal way” on the night of the shooting.

Wayne William Howlett, 38, of Glenorchy, has pleaded guilty to charges related to the shooting at Pablo’s Cocktails and Dreams in the early hours of June 24.

It was alleged that Howlett had used a semi-automatic SKS assault rifle to shoot up to 20 rounds into the door of the bar in Harrington Lane.

About 20 people were inside the bar when a volley of bullets went through the steel front door. No one was injured but the shots damaged the door, walls, pipework and waterlines inside the venue.

Howlett pleaded not guilty in the Hobart Magistrates Court to charges associated with the shooting before pleading guilty yesterday in the Supreme Court to recklessly discharging a firearm and unlawfully injuring property.

Howlett’s lawyer Greg Richardson indicated he would be seeking a drug treatment order.

In arguing for Acting Justice David Porter to order a drug treatment report, Mr Richardson said a drug treatment order could be consid- ered in a case where the offender had a history of drug use and that drug use was a major factor in the commission of the crime.

“I don’t think there will be too much doubt about that … It was a major contributing factor in the commission of these offences,” Mr Richardson said.

Mr Richardson said the fact that Howlett had put on red face paint and used his own phone to call a taxi to the bar showed he “was not functioning in a normal way” on the night of the shooting.

Acting Justice Porter did not order a report and adjourned the case until February. Howlett remains on remand.