Farmer who shot environmental officer appears in witness box
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Version 0 of 1. After mortally wounding an environmental compliance officer, the New South Wales farmer Ian Turnbull told the man’s colleague: “You can do what you like now, I’m going home,” a court has heard. The 81-year-old entered the witness box for the first time at his murder trial on Monday, telling the NSW supreme court jury of his state of mind when he shot Glen Turner several times at his Croppa Creek property in the state’s north on 29 July 2014. Turnbull said he had been extremely nervous but, after firing the first shot at Turner, calmness came over him. After he fired his rifle for the final time and Turner dropped to the ground, the farmer said he told the fallen officer’s colleague, Robert Strange: “You can do what you like now, I’m going home ... people know where to come and get me.” Turnbull has admitted the shooting but has pleaded not guilty to murder, with his lawyers arguing he snapped under the immense pressure of persistent legal action. Asked by the crown prosecutor Pat Barrett why he didn’t call police or an ambulance for Turner, Turnbull said he had assumed Strange would do it. “I wasn’t in a state of mind to think like that, rationally think,” he told the court.Turnbull’s son Grant Turnbull also took to the witness box and testified that the family had faced financial ruin if they lost their legal battle with the Office of Environment and Heritage. In dispute was 450 hectares of land which the department alleged had been illegally cleared. Turnbull said if the family lost the case, the estimated cost to comply with a remediation order for the land over the next 15 years was more than $5m. “If we weren’t successful the farming operation would begin to fold,” he told the court. “It would have finished the business.” The trial continues before Justice Peter Johnson. |