Gun death dad’s grief
THE father of a three-year-old girl shot dead in her home by a sawn-off shotgun shouted, “Let me see my daughter one more time,” as he cried in the dock at a Sydney court yesterday.
The 43-year-old’s lawyer said the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was “losing his mind” with grief and had not slept in jail since the girl died just before 8.30pm on Sunday night.
He has been charged with firearm offences after allegedly stashing the gun in the house where the girl lived with her mother and three brothers. All were home at the time the gun discharged into her neck.
Looking thin and mumbling to himself at Blacktown Local Court, the man expressed de- luded hopes about seeing his daughter again while sitting in the dock.
“I love you, Daddy, I love you, Daddy. Please say it one more time,” the man shouted.
“Let me see my daughter one more time.”
In dramatic scenes, three female supporters sobbed and tried to reach to the man in the dock before security stepped in.
One woman collapsed outside the courtroom and the man had to be taken back to the cells for the final part of the hearing due to the noise.
The man’s barrister, William Barber, told the court his client had been alone in a cell 23 hours a day and without his usual antidepressants and sleeping medication.
“He is very, very highly traumatised. He tells me he hasn’t slept for five days. He is losing his mind,” Mr Barber said.
Outside the court, Mr Barber said “this is a tragedy of epic proportion”.
“I’ve never seen anyone in such a bad way in custody before,” Mr Williams said.
Mr Williams asked for his client to be moved to the hospital at Long Bay jail and a full psychiatric report was ordered by Magistrate Anthony Spence.
Homicide police are investigating whether the children found the gun while playing in the house before the girl was killed.
The man has been charged with possessing the unauthorised and unregistered gun and breaching an apprehended domestic violence order.
The charges were adjourned to November 3.