Gunfire granny granted jail wish
A GUN slinging Gold Coast granny who hoped to go to jail so she could have her “eyes fixed” after missing a point blank shot at her son-in-law has received her wish.
Not-so-sharpshooting matriarch Miriam Eason will have plenty of time for eye tests by prison optometrists after being sentenced yesterday to two-and-a-half years behind bars.
The 53-year-old, who was described as a “doting mother and grandmother”, was sentenced in the Southport District Court for opening fire multiple times at Nerang in March 2016.
Last month Eason pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous conduct using a weapon and possessing a weapon.
The court was told she wrongly believed her son-inlaw, Malcolm Howarth, who she “never got on well with”, had sexually assaulted her granddaughter so she confronted him at a Riverview Rd address.
The court was told Eason, who self medicates with cannabis, yelled “haven’t you got something to say to me?” as she approached her son-inlaw, before firing at him while standing just two metres away.
After the shot was fired Howarth fled inside, deadlocking the door .
But Eason wasn’t finished. The court heard Eason’s daughter ran out of the home into the front garden and Eason turned the four-barrel pepperbox 0.22 pistol and fired past her at a distance of about three metres.
Eason was later tracked down by police and arrested. Police said she told them she was “happy to go to jail to get her eyes fixed and come back out” to have another crack.
In sentencing, Judge Catherine Muir said Eason “engaged in conduct which was likely to cause death”.
She said Eason had “unresolved trauma issues” and “believed her grandchild was being sexually abused”.
Judge Muir said Eason’s actions stemmed from her own childhood of abuse, which “explains but in no way justified your behaviour”.
“You are a mature woman who committed an act of retribution and vigilantism which could have led to serious injury or death,” she said.
Judge Muir said her “hands are tied” when handing down the sentence because the minimum punishment was 18 months behind bars.
She sentenced Eason to two-and-a-half years in jail, suspended after 18 months.
Fifty-eight days Eason had spent in pre-sentence custody would be counted as time already served.
The gun Eason fired was forfeited, having been recovered by police near the Weedons Rd bridge over the Nerang River shortly after the shooting.