Pensioner, 74, who sent a BULLET to Barnaby Joyce escapes jail

Neville Newman, 74, sent threatening letter and .22 calibre bullet to Mr Joyce
He also left a threatening answer phone message with Joyce’s elderly parents
Newman pleaded guilty and was today handed one-year suspended sentence

By Charlie Moore For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 06:01 BST, 23 April 2018 | Updated: 06:05 BST, 23 April 2018

A 74-year-old who sent a bullet to Barnaby Joyce’s office with a letter calling him a ‘red faced piece of s***’ has escaped jail.

Neville Newman also left a threatening answer phone message with the politician’s elderly parents after looking up their address in the phone book and calling them from a payphone.

Police traced the phone and saw Mr Newman making the call on CCTV. They arrested him on Christmas day and found .22 calibre bullets matching the one he sent in his home.

Newman pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and one charge of stalking or intimidation.

He was today handed a one-year suspended jail term at Armidale Local Court and was put on a good behaviour bond for the same period. He was also fined $2,000.

Retiree Neville Newman stuck a .22 calibre bullet inside a note which called Joyce (pictured) ‘bloody corrupt’ and a ‘disgrace to your country’ and was opened by a staff member

The letter sent to Mr Joyce’s office

bbarnaby joyce and malcolm turnbull ? if you think you are going to give billion dollars toest establish that mega coal mine in north queensland sixty minutes showed how by amess they left every where everywhere they also theliverpool plains that is part of our food bowl why wont you stop the water being stolen northen n nsw youare so bloody corrupt keep going and you will bestopped you are a disgrace t to our countryyou red faced piece of s**t

The telephone message left on Mr Joyce’s parents’ answer machine

Hello could you give your son a message. Tell him he is going to end up very dead that bastard, him and that Turnbull if he lets that mine go through in North Queensland. He is just a (traitor) that bastard the way he sold us out to everybody else, he is a dog

Newman sent his threatening letter during the 2017 New England by-election. It was opened by a staff member on November 6.

He used a typewriter to compose a barely legible note demanding the government not issue a loan to the Adani coal mine in Queensland.

The retiree stuck a .22 calibre bullet inside the note which called Joyce ‘bloody corrupt’ and a ‘disgrace to your country’.

After Joyce regained his seat in New England, Newman phoned his parents Beryl and James and said: ‘Tell him he is going to end up very dead that bastard.’

The pair were left ‘shaken’ when they heard the threat, the court heard today.

Newman, who cares for his sick wife, said he never intended harm and was just frustrated at what he perceived to be ‘the destruction of Australia by politicians.’

Mr Joyce (left with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in December) was in the middle of the New England by-election at the time he got the letter

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk