Cairns man who shot neighbour amid loud music row sentenced to jail
By Sharnie Kim
Updated about an hour ago
Map: Cairns 4870
A 64-year-old Cairns man who shot his neighbour with a rifle for playing loud music has been sentenced to three-and-a-half-years' jail.
The Supreme Court in Cairns heard Robert John McKenzie had confronted his next-door neighbour George Waia about his music over several months, and had also complained to police and the Department of Housing to no avail.
The court heard people started gathering at Mr Waia's house on a Friday afternoon in September 2014, there was a loud party all night Saturday night, and there was still noise when McKenzie woke on Sunday morning.
Even allowing for his intoxication, it's striking me as extraordinary that someone in suburbia would overreact to this extent. I mean, I've seen some overreactions in my time as a practitioner in criminal law, but this one's a doozy
Justice Jim Henry
McKenzie tried to get away from the noise and went to a friend's house, then a pub, returning home about 5:00pm on the Sunday.
Barrister Michael Dalton said McKenzie walked his dog, sat down to watch TV and had drunk about a quarter of a bottle of rum when he heard "doof doofs" from Mr Waia's car boot stereo.
Mr Waia and some friends had returned home after going out to get more drinks.
Mr Dalton said McKenzie yelled out to the group but they probably could not hear him.
He said McKenzie yelled again, but got no response, at which point he "snapped".
The prosecution said a neighbour heard McKenzie yell something like: "Turn the music down or I'll blast your head off", but the defence disputed that, and said McKenzie had in fact yelled out "Turn the f****** music down or I'll blast that stereo to hell".
Mr Dalton said McKenzie fired his bolt-action rifle at the car stereo but hit Mr Waia, who was still sitting in the driver's seat, in the shoulder.
McKenzie was to stand trial earlier this week charged with attempted murder, but he pleaded guilty after the charge was downgraded to unlawful wounding.
He also pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing weapons and ammunition, and using a firearm while drunk.
With time served, McKenzie will be eligible for parole in November.
'Tensions between neighbours are commonplace'
Justice Jim Henry said many other neighbours were troubled by Mr Waia's anti-social and inconsiderate propensity to play music "for long hours at all hours", but McKenzie's reaction was "grossly disproportionate" and dangerous.
"He [Mr Waia] made his neighbours very unhappy it seems," Justice Henry said.
"He [McKenzie] wasn't the only neighbour who was troubled by the repeated and sustained loud music that was coming from the complainant's residence."
Prosecutor Nathan Crane said there were "myriad" statements to that effect, and one neighbour described the music on the night of the shooting "as being the worst noise emanating from that house over the course of the six months".
Justice Henry said he had initially thought the case was one of an older man losing the plot in a one-off incident, but McKenzie's "long and varied" criminal history suggested otherwise.
He said his history of unlawful behaviour showed a lack of self-control, and there was a need for personal as well as general deterrence.
"Even allowing for his intoxication, it's striking me as extraordinary that someone in suburbia would overreact to this extent. I mean, I've seen some overreactions in my time as a practitioner in criminal law, but this one's a doozy," Justice Henry said.
"We can't have vigilante conduct like this in suburbs, it's simply not on.
"I accept that your actions were a response to repeated, sustained and extraordinarily inconsiderate playing of loud music by your neighbour ... this along with your own life history of repeated recourse to unlawful behaviour helps to explain why you, when intoxicated, finally snapped and engaged in the grossly disproportionate overreaction of shooting at him. But it does not excuse your actions.
"Tensions between neighbours are commonplace. They must be resolved lawfully."