A MAN accused of shooting an intruder three times after he caught him breaking into his Scone home has been acquitted of all charges after a trial in Newcastle District Court.
Paul Patrick Condon, 53, had claimed it was the intruders who brought the gun into his house and it "went off" during a struggle as he desperately tried to stop them from breaking in.
A jury on Tuesday found Mr Condon not guilty of two counts of discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and three counts of firing a firearm in a manner likely to injure a person.
He had spent the past week facing a trial that focused on what happened inside a laundry at the back of his home in Barton Street, Scone in the early hours of November 24, 2020.
During her opening address last week, Crown prosecutor Jane Krippner had told the jury that in November, 2020, Mr Condon was growing cannabis in the garage of his home at Scone and a man, then 43, had heard from a mate that Mr Condon was supplying drugs to children.
She said the 43-year-old man decided to pay Mr Condon a visit and "give him a bit of a touch up".
It was the prosecution case that about 3am on November 24, 2020, the 43-year-old man entered the home in Barton Street through the back door and was in the laundry when he was shot three times, once each in the left knee, right ankle and right shoulder.
The intruder ran from the home, drove to a friend's house and was then taken to Scone Hospital where he was treated for three gunshot wounds.
He was later transferred to John Hunter Hospital for further treatment and bullets were removed from his shoulder and ankle. The gunshot wound through the knee was a "through and through".
Ms Krippner said when he was initially spoken to police, the alleged victim told a "story" about being shot on the side of the road. He later called police back and told them he was at the home in Barton Street when he was shot.
Mr Condon voluntarily went to Scone police station to speak to investigators and participated in a video walk-through of his home and an interview, during which he denied having possession of the firearm used in the shooting.
Ms Krippner said Mr Condon told police he was at home in the early hours of the morning when he heard a loud noise coming from the back door.
He said he armed himself with a knife and went towards the laundry where he was confronted with a gun poking through the partially closed sliding door.
Mr Condon told police he grabbed the gun and wrestled with the man before the weapon went off "four or five times". He said there were two men inside his laundry and he could hear a third person outside.
He said the men fled and he did not think anyone had been shot.
He said he did not call police about the break-in because of the cannabis crop he was growing in the garage.
The revolver found in the laundry by police was unregistered and no fingerprints were found on the gun, the jury heard.
During his opening address, defence barrister Jason Curtis had told the jury Mr Condon disputed claims that he was armed with the gun and said it was discharged while he was in the process of trying to stop people breaking into his home.
And ultimately the jury must have accepted the version of Mr Condon, acquitting him of all charges.
Mr Condon was also charged over guns and the hydroponic cannabis set-up that police discovered at the Barton Street home while investigating the shooting in November, 2020.
He pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis and three firearm offences and in 2021 was jailed for a maximum of three years, with a non-parole period of 18 months.
He was released from jail in September, 2022.
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