A GUNNEDAH man charged with a string of firearms offences has been refused bail after a magistrate said the “public is not protected in any way” if he is released.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Magistrate Roger Prowse said Philip Jason Winsor’s bid for bail fell “extremely short” of the show cause criteria needed to prove his detention is not justified.
“You haven’t shown cause, in fact you haven’t come close,” Mr Prowse told Tamworth Local Court.
“It’s a very serious allegation involving a weapon … immediate threat of serious harm.
“[It’s an] extraordinarily strong crown case.
“The public is not protected in any way if you’re at large.”
Winsor is being held in custody in Tamworth Correctional Centre and has yet to enter pleas to the 11 charges stemming from alleged incidents in Mullaley and Gunnedah in September.
Solicitor Jonathan Wilcox said his client would face “delays” if held in custody because it would “be a lengthy trial estimate” with several witnesses to be called.
“It is anticipated at this stage Mr Winsor will vigorously defend the matter,” he said.
Mr Wilcox said while he was unable to obtain some of Winsor’s medical records, the “health” of his client “shows cause” for his release.
He submitted his client could live under house arrest in Gunnedah with family, stay out of Mullaley and would “not go on the Oxley Highway”.
“He doesn’t have any access to any guns,” Mr Wilcox said, acknowledging the “very nature of these offences is serious” but he could abide by conditions.
Mr Wilcox said Winsor had “completed section nine and section 12 bonds in the past”.
“He is a person that does what the court tells him too,” he said, before bail was refused.
DPP solicitor Cameron Reynolds said detectives had served a partial brief on the defence team.
“There is certainly some scope for negotiations on some of the charges,” he told the court.
Detectives allege Winsor had a 410 loaded shortened shotgun in his possession on September 20 and fired it as a he travelled along the Oxley Highway at Mullaley.
Police then allege between 9 and 9.25pm on September 22, Winsor wielded the shortened shotgun at the Post Office Hotel in Mullaley, and then again in the beer garden shortly after.