The gunman who allegedly murdered three members of the same family in a rural Queensland town last week was banned from owning a gun license by police more than a decade ago before he successfully overturned the decision.
Queensland Police refused to renew Darryl Valroy Young’s gun license in 2010 after it found he was “not a fit and proper person” to hold firearms.
It added an approval for a license to own four rifles and a shotgun “was not considered to be in the public interest”, The Courier Mail reported.
But the 59-year-old appealed to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal in the same year he needed the weapons to kill feral animals on his sprawling property in Bogie, south-west of Bowen, in northern Queensland’s Whitsundays region.
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Young argued he had not broken laws that would prevent the Queensland Police from renewing his firearms license – which was first acquired in 1998.
“I would like the Tribunal to over turn the rejection notice as I have not broken any laws to stop me having a gun license,” Young wrote.
“…There is no were (sic) in the laws of the gun laws that I have broken to stop me having a gun license… I need my gun license for my business.
“I hope the Court overturns the decision so I can have my license.”
He was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder on Friday following the shooting incident that rocked the town one day earlier.
Police will allege in court three family members – couple Mervyn, 71, and Maree Schwarz, 59, and their son Graham Tighe, 35 – were fatally shot on Thursday by Young at the boundary of their huge properties after the parties agreed to meet the night before.
The other son, Ross Tighe, was left in a critical condition after a shotgun wound to the abdomen. He was able to escape about 40 kilometers in a ute and raise the alarm.
Young appeared at Proserpine Magistrates Court via video link on Monday morning. His legal team did not apply for bail.
He will remain behind bars at a Queensland correctional facility until the case is mentioned again in just under three months on November 1.
Neighbors of the Schwarz’s traveled more than an hour from their town to the courthouse to support the alleged victims and their families.
The Schwarz’s had moved next door to the Young’s in the town with a population of about 200 people after purchasing the 29,000 hectare farm in May 2021.
Police will allege the couple and one of their sons were murdered at the front of the Shannonvale Rd property over an ongoing dispute about boundaries of the homes.
Anyone in the area with information who has knowledge, information of any issues in the area, or spoke with either family, should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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