THE CAREER OF Australia’s most decorated shooter Michael Diamond appears to have come to an end after a court found him guilty of firearms and drink-driving offences, and banned him from holding a gun licence for a decade.
Diamond, an Olympic gold medallist in 1996 and 2000, was charged in May last year after an alleged domestic incident involving his brother.
He had pleaded not guilty after police found a shotgun and 150 rounds of ammunition in his car, with the 44-year-old reportedly refusing to take a breath test.
The Raymond Terrace Local Court in Sydney late last night issued Diamond with a 12-month good behaviour bond, and the “firearm was forfeited to the crown” for 10 years, a court clerk said.
Diamond’s barrister Daniel McMahon had asked the magistrate to proceed without a conviction as it would leave the six-time Olympian “effectively without his professional career”, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The charges dashed his hopes of competing in a seventh Olympics last year in Rio.
Diamond won trap shooting gold at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics, and finished just outside the medals in fourth at London five years ago. He is also a five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
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