APPEALED: Claire Michelle Hanify has lost her appeal against conviction. She shot a man in the throat who owed her money.PHOTO/FILE
APPEALED: Claire Michelle Hanify has lost her appeal against conviction. She shot a man in the throat who owed her money.PHOTO/FILE
A woman who shot a Featherston man in the throat with an airgun and says she was wrongfully convicted has lost her appeal against conviction.
Claire Michelle Hanify, 43, was convicted of assault with a weapon following a defended hearing in September last year and was sentenced to three months'community detention with an 11-hour nightly curfew and 150 hours' community work.
She shot Bevan Richards twice with a Glock replica air pistol on June 14 after tracking him down because he owed her $6000. She admitted to police she was "fuelled up" on alcohol when she went to his home and broke a window panel next to the door but denied shooting Mr Richards.
Hanify claimed that Richards had shot himself or someone else had shot him to deflect police attention away from him.
Lawyer Jock Blathwayt appealed conviction on the grounds Judge Walsh's findings were not supported by evidence, that he failed to give reasons for rejecting her version and he misdirected himself on the relevance of Hanify's evidence.
He claimed the judge placed too much weight on the transcript of the emergency services call made on the night.
Appeal judge Justice David Collins found the judge had made the correct decision in determining police had proven the case against her "beyond reasonable doubt".
