John Edwards was 'extremely aggressive' in demanding membership to invite-only pistol club
Sydney father John Edwards began his quest to own guns by demanding membership to an invite-only pistol club, an inquest into the shooting murder of his two children in mid-2018 has been told.
Officials from two clubs based at Hornsby rifle range formed a poor opinion of the recently retired financial planner in December 2016, the New South Wales coroner’s court heard on Monday.
“Many times over he stated ... ‘I have to become a member of KuRing-Gai Pistol Club’,” president Neville “Drew” Thornton said. “He was very demanding.”
The coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, is examining the lead-up to Edwards’ execution-style murders of his estranged teenagers, Jack and Jennifer Edwards, including the method in which the 67-year-old acquired weapons.
Despite a long history of domestic violence, Edwards was licensed to operate and possess rifles and pistols when he shot his children. The KPC secretary, David Dean, said new members were usually excited about learning about the sport and the club processes but he became concerned Edwards was trying to “railroad” them in the summer of 2016-17.
“He was just consumed with getting through the process, he wasn’t interested in the process (or) the club,” Dean said.
The secretary couldn’t recall another time when someone had tried to concurrently join both KPC and Hornsby RSL Rifle Club, which used the same range.
In an email to the club committee, Dean described Edwards as a “right PITA” (pain in the arse) and recommended the club refuse him membership. After that refusal occurred in March 2017, Edwards arrived at the range, tracked the club president down and became “extremely aggressive”, the inquest heard.
“‘Why have you not allowed me to join your club?’ and so on,” Thornton said of Edwards’ exclamations. “It was just ridiculously stupid how he carried on.”
KPC took the unusual step of advising Hornsby RSL officials of the membership refusal, the inquest heard. But the rifle club had already found Edwards was not a good fit for them and “a bit pushy” about signing up.
The then president, Doug Caple, also said he’d considered it “a bit strange” how Edwards – on four occasions – stood alone at the back of the rifle range and engaged with no one.
“New people would mingle a bit better than what he did,” he said. “He just stood back and observed.”
The current club captain, Heather Smith, said she’d immediately thought Edwards wouldn’t fit in with other members. But Hornsby RSL never had to decide on Edwards’ membership application as he was never seen after April 2017, when the club ticked off on his rifle training.
News of the rejected membership and adverse opinions never made it to St Marys Pistol Club, which Edwards approached in order to finish his pistol training. The inquest heard the clubs weren’t obliged to share concerns with each other.
Both KPC officials said they didn’t believe he met the threshold of posing a threat to “public safety” that would have forced them to report him to the Firearms Registry.
Smith supported a proposal to allow clubs to notify the registry and other clubs of concerns, provided it wouldn’t lead to blacklisting of people who had personality conflicts with officials.
The inquest is expected to hear from St Marys Pistol Club officials on Tuesday.