A gunman has been sentenced to 12 years and 10 months' jail after he used a long-barrelled rifle to shoot a grandmother in the neck during an attempted carjacking near a school among his litany of crimes.
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Documents tendered to the ACT Supreme Court state that in November 2019, Michael Paul Forrest, wearing a face covering, exited a Hyundai Getz while holding the weapon and approached the woman sitting in her parked car at the intersection of Dominion Circuit and New South Wales Crescent.
Forrest, who was granted parole only weeks prior, initially tapped the window with the gun before shooting through it and injuring her.
While still in shock, she was able to start the car and speed away - when she saw the Getz appearing to follow her - towards Manuka Oval before calling triple zero.
She was taken to Canberra Hospital where she was found with a bullet lodged in her neck. It also struck a tooth.
Police arrested Forrest later that morning when they found him slumped over the steering wheel of the Getz.
Forrest, 28, fronted the court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to attempted aggravated robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and unauthorised possession of a firearm in relation to that incident.
He also pleaded guilty to a raft of other charges totalling 12, which includes aggravated robbery, obtaining property by deception and incitement to commit an offence, from other incidents in late 2019 and mid 2020.
Between April 5 and 8 last year while he was remanded in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, ACT Corrective Services lawfully intercepted several emails and phone calls between Forrest and others trying to arrange for the delivery of drug-related items into the centre.
Forrest had used an AMC-issued email address with one asking a woman to "put the jack and jills in there", referring to illicit pills.
The arrangement involved a man in black clothes throwing tennis balls into the AMC where Forrest was standing.
Corrective Services seized the balls and found they contained six syringes and eight snap lock bags filled with 7.2 grams of cannabis.
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In her sentencing, Chief Justice Helen Murrell said the jail term would start from October 2022 when he finishes serving a jail term of nearly three years after the Sentencing Administration Board cancelled his parole from previous offending following the shooting.
Chief Justice Murrell said the sentence would conclude in August 2035 and set a non-parole period that would allow Forrest to be eligible for release in May 2028.
She said she was aiming to publish her reasons on Wednesday.
On Monday, the court heard that the victim did her best to draw the offender away from the area as it was near a school.
"My life irrevocably changed forever. My husband almost lost his wife, my children almost lost their mother, my parents their daughter," the court heard.
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