Joint operation’s sights on sniper
AN ex-crack army sniper turned commercial animal hunter has been revealed as the target of a raid by police and Australian Border Force agents on the Gold Coast.
Scores of police and Border Force agents swooped on the Paradise Point home of Robert Marchment yesterday morning, sealing off the street and leaving stunned neighbours locked out.
Army bomb experts were called in after explosives were reportedly found at the Warrie Close duplex where the Afghanistan veteran, and army sharpshooter and ammunition supplier had lived quietly for two years.
Border Force agents spent most of the day at the residence and plainclothes police took away bags of evidence.
Border Force agents interviewed a male at the property.
Mr Marchment’s Facebook page shows him shooting and brandishing guns. In one photo, he is holding a mortar in one hand and a can of Cambodian beer in the other.
His Facebook profile says he likes “back massages and trolling anti gunners” - and he manages Gold Coast Possum, Bush Turkey and Pest Animal Removal.
There is also a photo of his army Certificate III in Fieldcraft as a sniper, with competencies including the ability to “kill selected enemy targets with accurate fire” and “wound or disable enemy targets with harassing fire”.
In a newspaper interview in 2011, he said he had taken part in a shooting competition at the Australian Army Skill at Arms Meeting “where the top 100 shooters in Australia compete”.
Mr Marchment had not been charged with anything after the raids. A Border Force spokesman said members of the Joint Explosive Ordnance Support attended at the request of police, adding: “No arrests were made and no public safety risks identified.”
Mr Marchment, who runs a business called RJM Vertebrae Pest Control & Firearm Services, did not answer the door of his home after police and Border Force agents left yesterday.
He did not respond to the Bulletin’s request for comment.
His elderly neighbour Stewart Green said he was shocked to see “millions of cops floating about” at the next-door duplex yesterday.
“They turfed me out about one o’clock. I couldn’t get (back) in for the last three hours,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s going on. All I knew he (Mr Marchment) was something to do with culling wild deer. He was quiet.
“It’s all a mystery – a mystery to everyone.”
Neighbours said they knew of Mr Marchment’s hunting business but that he kept to himself.