A VIOLENT career criminal who was acquitted of shooting a man in the buttocks at Muswellbrook was the masked figure who fired several rounds into the front door of a home at Raymond Terrace while a woman cowered inside.
Daniel Paul Bell, now 44, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from Long Bay Prison Hospital where he pleaded guilty to three firearm offences, including firing a gun into a house with disregard for safety.
The jury in that case didn't know that Bell had previously been jailed for six years for an armed robbery and, at the time of the trial in Newcastle District Court, was serving a jail term for an unrelated stabbing.
Bell was spending a rare spell out of jail when he went to a home in Parkway Avenue at Raymond Terrace about 4am on October 18, 2022 and began kicking and banging on the front door.
A man asleep in the loungeroom woke up, grabbed a knife and yelled out "f--- off", while a woman looked at the CCTV monitors and saw a figure dressed all in black holding a firearm.
She fled to a bedroom at the back of the home and was later found cowering under a pile of clothing, shaking and saying "he's got a gun".
Meanwhile, Bell had started discharging the Winchester rifle through the front door, the bullets lodging in internal walls and doors.
CCTV captured Bell fire at least four bullets into the home, but he also accidentally ejected several live rounds of ammunition onto the front doorstep before leaving.
He walked to a red Holden Astra parked nearby and was spotted by a neighbour who was leaving for work.
Bell went to get into the car, but then hesitated and looked at the neighbour and, while armed with the rifle, snarled "f--- off".
The Astra then sped away. Police arrived shortly after and saw the bullet holes and examined the footprints on the front door.
Meanwhile, later on the day of the shooting police say they received a number of calls about a red Astra that was speeding on the Pacific Highway.
At about 5.40pm, the Astra was involved in a crash at Coffs Harbour and both Bell and the driver got out and fled on foot.
Bell was arrested and immediately claimed he had been kidnapped and said there was a loaded firearm in the car.
Police found the gun, which had been stolen from a house at Mayfield in July 2022, and ammunition and took Bell to Coffs Harbour police station.
Bell denied any knowledge of the shooting in Raymond Terrace and it wasn't until May, 2023, after police received a DNA match on the firearm and the front door of the home in Parkway Avenue, that he was arrested and charged.
Bell again denied any involvement, but pleaded guilty on Wednesday. He will next appear in Newcastle District Court next month to get a sentence date.
