Axe and spear gun stand-off

© iStockphoto.com/Pgiam

A MAN who shot a spear gun at a neighbour following an argument in Villiers St, Grafton, was sentenced in Grafton Local Court last week to nine months jail.

A police vehicle was returning to Grafton police station at 7.15pm on Monday, March 7, when officers saw a man holding a tomahawk in his right hand above his head in front of a Villiers St address.

On the veranda of a nearby house they spotted another man, Roger Francis Guest, who was holding a spear gun and a bow-saw, with two axes nearby, the court heard.

Police approached Guest and told him to drop his weapons but he ran inside, dropping the weapons in two rooms of the house.

He was arrested and taken to Grafton police station.

Other police officers who had arrived at the scene arrested the man who was holding the tomahawk and he was later charged with unknown offences.

Police compiled a fact sheet from a number of witness statements given to police.

The evidence said Guest, 44, was on his veranda when a neighbour approached the house and began arguing with him.

The heated exchange intensified and Guest went inside his home but came back out moments later brandishing a loaded spear gun in one hand and an axe in the other, the facts stated.

Guest's neighbour backed down the stairs and was four metres away when Guest fired the spear gun which passed by the man on his right side.

Witnesses told police the neighbour then grabbed the spear-gun rope and pulled Guest towards him. He then grabbed his axe and tried to cut the rope.

The man then went back to his home, saying he was going to get "something bigger and better". He returned with an axe and a bow-saw, the police evidence tendered before the court stated.

Guest, who police listed as a TAFE student, was convicted of firing a spear gun in a manner likely to injure a person or

property. He was sentenced to serve nine months in prison from December 5.