District Court hears Thurgoona man is 'genuinely remorseful'
A father was shocked his drug-dealing son had a loaded, shortened .357 calibre Magnum revolver when arrested at his Thurgoona home.
"I had no idea," Jason Barnstable told the District Court in Albury on Thursday.
Weapons had "always been a fascination for him".
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"More than anything, (it was) a collection, a hobby," the Gerogery man said at Connor Thorn-Barnstable's sentence hearing, though a revolver did not fit with that interest.
Mr Barnstable said he would "do whatever needs to be done" to help his son and "be fairly hard on him" once he was released from jail.
That won't happen for some time after Thorn-Barnstable copped a jail term on drugs and weapons charges.
Judge Sean Grant sentenced the 23-year-old "major" drug supplier to an aggregate term of four years and two months, with a non-parole period of two years and one month.
Thorn-Barnstable was arrested on October 16, 2019, and has since remained in custody, bail refused.
He will become eligible for parole on November 15, 2021.
The most serious of his charges were two counts of supply a prohibited drug at greater than an indictable but less than a commercial quantity and supplying at greater than a commercial quantity.
Police seized 360.94 grams of methamphetamine, 85.03 grams of MDMA, 109.56 grams of cocaine, 7.7 grams of ketamine, 1.9939 kilograms of cannabis leaf, 5.8 grams of cannabis seeds and 19.3 grams of cannabis oil from the house owned by Mr Barnstable.
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Judge Grant said he had found special circumstances for Thorn-Barnstable, who he described as "an immature man".
"This is his first time in custody and he is a youthful offender," he said.
"I accept he has been genuinely contrite and remorseful."
But Judge Grant also noted that precedence made clear that anyone who committed such drug supply-related crimes should expect a lengthy jail spell.
Police were called to Thorn-Barnstable's home in Sundew Court last October after his housemate reported a break-in, with three men forcing entry and stealing Thorn-Barnstable's wallet and keys.
Investigating police initially found 251 MDMA, or ecstasy, tablets, a large number of resealable bags, .22 rounds, $54,820 in cash and a Taser device inside a lounge room desk.
"I added to a drug problem in the community," he told a psychologist, "where people were not being functional members of society."
Thorn-Barnstable was later charged also with supplying 522.2 grams of cannabis across 59 transactions between January 25 and October 10, 2019.