by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A drug-addled gunman who randomly shot into a car containing two innocent teenagers in Clyde has been jailed.
Anthony Creswell, 30, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to two counts of recklessly causing injury, using a firearm as a prohibited person, and drug possession as well as summary offences.
In the early hours of 4 January 2023, Creswell had driven over to Pump House Crescent after a co-offender received a message that the victim’s parked car was suspicious.
Despite having “no idea” who was in the car, Creswell approached with a 12-gauge shotgun and demanded to know the driver’s name, sentencing judge Fiona Todd said on 23 April.
The 19-year-old driver started to drive away, and Creswell shot a round through the car’s rear window into the back of the driver’s seat.
Judge Todd noted that the victims suffered “thankfully, minor” injuries.
The driver was taken to hospital with three metal fragments in his back. Two pellets were later removed from the driver’s seat.
His passenger, who was his 19 year old cousin, suffered a cut, bruised arm.
Creswell’s “deeply serious”, “random” and “outrageous” behaviour had “shattered the sense of safety” of the victims – who had been simply chatting in a car in a quiet, suburban street, Judge Todd said.
During his arrest by Special Operations Police in the Cranbourne KFC car park on 16 January 2023, Creswell suffered a broken jaw and dog-bites to his leg.
Police seized deal bags of methylamphetamine totalling 1.9 grams and a motorbike with a false number plate.
At the time, Creswell was highly drug addicted, in declining mental health and hanging with anti-social peers – this was context but no excuse, Judge Todd said.
In his “paranoid” and “drug-addled” state, he had a “sense of entitlement to inflict harm on others”, the judge said.
At the time, Creswell was on a community corrections order and prohibited from using a gun.
Born in Hobart, Creswell had prior convictions for drug, driving and weapon offences including for being a prohibited person with a gun.
Judge Todd said Creswell had “capacity to repair” himself but his history with guns was particularly concerning.
Co-offender James Bartlett, 34, of Clyde, was sentenced at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for two counts of recklessly causing injury, bail offences, driving suspended and possessing prohibited weapons – a taser and OC spray.
Bartlett was jailed for 120 days and put on an 18-month community correction order without conviction.
He was given a significant sentencing discount after providing a statement implicating Creswell.
Unlike Creswell, Bartlett wasn’t a prohibited person or on a CCO at the time of the shooting.
Judge Todd further noted that Creswell was the principal offender who brought the gun to the scene and fired it.
Creswell was jailed for three-and-a-half years – with a non-parole period of two years and three months. He had already served 463 days of his term in remand.
