Canberra Airport shooter Ali Ammoun was on parole for attempted murder of ex-wife in Western Australia

A non-publication order over Ali Rachid Ammoun's background was lifted in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday, when he pleaded guilty to two charges.

Ammoun, 63, admitted charges of recklessly discharging a firearm at a building and unauthorised possession of a firearm.

The gun in question was a .38/200 Smith & Wesson revolver, which Ammoun fired at windows in the Canberra Airport terminal on August 14.

Prosecutor Andrew Chatterton withdrew a third charge after the pleas were entered.

Mr Chatterton also successfully applied for the revocation of the non-publication order, which had been put in place to ensure potential jurors would not be prejudiced against the 63-year-old man if the case went to trial.

With a jury trial no longer a possibility, it can now be revealed that Ammoun spent 14-and-a-half years behind bars in Western Australia after breaking into his former mother-in-law's home, in Perth's southern suburbs, in January 2007.

He lay in wait before pouncing on her as she walked into the laundry, where he repeatedly smashed her face into the floor.

Ammoun eventually tied the woman up, put a bag over her head and forced her to make a phone call that lured her daughter to the property.

When his ex-wife arrived, Ammoun attacked her with a knife.

At Ammoun's trial, the woman said her former husband had repeatedly stabbed her "like a maniac", tried to strangle her and slammed her head into concrete.

The attack ended when Ammoun's ex-wife, who sustained a total of 27 knife wounds, pretended to be dead, prompting him to call triple zero.

"I want to report a murder," Ammoun told the operator, adding that he had "tried to kill my wife and my mother-in-law".

Ammoun later claimed he had actually said he tried to "call" the pair, but a WA Supreme Court jury found him guilty of six charges, including attempted murder.

Justice Peter Blaxell, who described the ex-wife's survival as fortuitous if not miraculous, ultimately sentenced Ammoun to 16 years in jail.

After being granted parole in July 2021, having served all but 18 months of that term, Ammoun moved to NSW.

He was still on conditional liberty when he caused chaos at Canberra Airport, where he calmly sat beside check-in desks before firing at the windows.

He was arrested at the scene, having left five bullet holes in his wake, and has been behind bars on remand at the Alexander Maconochie Centre ever since.

Agreed facts surrounding his offending have been filed in court but they are yet to be marked as an exhibit, meaning the document is not yet publicly available.

After Ammoun pleaded guilty on Wednesday, his lawyer, Tamzin Lee, said the 63-year-old consented to his case being finalised in the Magistrates Court.

However, Mr Chatterton argued the ACT Supreme Court would be the more appropriate sentencing venue for a number of reasons.

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These included the seriousness of the offending, which he described as "getting close to a worst-case example" of discharging a firearm at a building, and his expectation of about 20 people providing victim impact statements.

Mr Chatterton said the territory's Supreme Court, with its larger courtrooms, would be able to better accommodate these people if they wished to attend Ammoun's sentencing and read their statements aloud.

Magistrate Robert Cook said while there was a public interest in large numbers of people being able to watch justice being done, particularly in a case of "high-profile offending", the matter could still be dealt with in the Magistrates Court.

But he did agree with Mr Chatterton that the non-publication order about Ammoun's past should be lifted immediately, despite Ms Lee's objection.

Ms Lee had argued victim impact statements might be "infected" by publicity about Ammoun's past ahead of his sentencing, but Mr Cook agreed with Mr Chatterton that any inadmissible content could simply be removed.

Ammoun is scheduled to be sentenced on February 21, 2023.

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