The son of a farmer who shot and killed an environment officer involved in land-clearing prosecutions has been ordered to pay $405,000 by the New South Wales Land and Environment Court in Sydney today.
Grant Wesley Turnbull pleaded guilty to unlawfully clearing 508 hectares of native vegetation at his Croppa Creek property near Moree between January 1 and August 20, 2014.
Turnbull submitted to the court that his sentence should take into account that he and his family had already been punished because his father, Ian Turnbull, was found guilty of the 2014 murder of Glendon Turner.
Ian Turnbull died in jail.
Justice Sandra Duggan rejected the submission on the grounds that the clearing was not the reason his father was convicted.
Check out the whole story … the family is delusional with their victim complex
Glenn Turner was a hero, following the law and trying to prevent illegal clearing of untouched native Koala habitat. With endangered and rare vegetation .
“You’re not here to do a job,” the man spits. “You’re here to ruin us, to take us to court. It’s not enough that we’ve been in court. You don’t leave us alone.” He jerks the gun forward. Strange feels the implacable eye of it. “All you want to do is just ruin, ruin the Turnbulls.”
The Turnbulls were rich as fuck. There was never any need for them to clear that land.
Altogether, in a modest ad giving few details, the Turnbulls listed nearly 6000 hectares of their land. Aerial satellite photos show the two contentious properties cleared, except a dribble of vegetation around the water gullies, to the margin. Ian Turnbull’s son Roger and his wife Annette sold two of their own properties, Royden and Wallam, in late 2019. Combined, the sales to an American teachers’ pension fund subsidiary made the couple more than $28 million, at $7500 a hectare.
And the family’s wealth seems to have grown, the old murderer got what he wanted.
This has truly disgusted me. But thanks for posting more of the story, this murderer and his family should be known, their crimes and their conceit. I’d be ashamed to have any association with anyone who defends that murderer in even the most subtle way.
Wow! There is so much to this.
I don’t know psychology well, but it seems sociopathic to make a claim of loss because your father murdered someone and was thrown in jail for it. I worry for the next environmental officer that has to deal with this son. Does he understand how wrong his father was?
New England, if this is the electorate, well i begin to understand why Barnaby Joyce has such a lock on that place. If you can call a single anecdote evidence of a wider attitude to environmental issues. Which I can’t, and shouldn’t; but I now have, take it as you may.
And lastly, but most importantly. There are underlying issues about the Australian attitude to land ‘ownership’ here that we should address as a nation, because these attitudes of, ‘its my land, i can do what i want’ are legally incorrect and terrible for development of any social cohesiveness. But this attitude is widespread.
The key question is, at what point do the rights received in the one-time purchase to a block of land get negated/cancelled by your in/actions? Can they ever? And isn’t that an issue if they are inalienable?
Honestly at this point ban the family from owning farmland
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The son of a farmer who shot and killed an environment officer involved in land-clearing prosecutions has been ordered to pay $405,000 by the New South Wales Land and Environment Court in Sydney today.
Grant Wesley Turnbull pleaded guilty to unlawfully clearing 508 hectares of native vegetation at his Croppa Creek property near Moree between January 1 and August 20, 2014.
Justice Sandra Duggan rejected the submission on the grounds that the clearing was not the reason his father was convicted.
“The consequence to [Grant Turnbull] of his father’s criminal conduct would not be considered as ‘punishment’ in the relevant sense, but rather the natural and inevitable consequence of the circumstance of his father being convicted of the murder of Mr Turner,” she said.
The court heard the illegal clearing included Brigalow trees, an endangered species, in a landscape of the New England region that had already been over-cleared.
Justice Duggan said the environmental impact of Turnbull’s clearing could be substantial.
The original article contains 230 words, the summary contains 159 words. Saved 31%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
