Carl and Shyheim Little were charged with aggravated intimidation in company while armed at the Mill Street home on January 5 2017, while Carl Little was also charged with shooting resident Gabriel George in the thigh.

Judge Gordon Lerve delivered his verdicts in the Wagga District Court this week, after the brothers faced a trial in December 2018 and the matter had been adjourned.

Before the trial, a third co-accused Wayne Mark Murdoch pleaded guilty to the same charge of aggravated intimidation in company and gave evidence against the Little brothers. 

The three men had been alleged to have gone to the Mill Street home to look for a man in relation to a debt. Shyheim Little was alleged to have had a knife and Carl Little to have a shortened firearm.

In handing down his verdict, Judge Lerve said neither of the Little brothers had given evidence during the trial.

However, Judge Lerve said, both men had participated in records of interview with police.

During these interviews, both of the brothers denied any involvement in the incident at Mill Street and both told police they had been at their homes at the time.

Judge Lerve said a number of people had “deliberately decided not to assist the authorities with accounts of the night of January 5, 2017, or evidence as to the events of that night”.

“A number of people who could have materially assisted it seems to me have made deliberate decisions not to assist the authorities or the court,” he said.

The judge also described identification evidence of the two brothers as “substantially flawed”.

He said there was “nothing in the way of physical or scientific evidence such as fingerprints or DNA”.

Judge Lerve also raised concerns about the current law surrounding alibi evidence.

“As the law stands at the present an accused can raise an alibi, not call any evidence in respect of that alibi and there be no adverse consequences by way of adverse direction or the like,” he said.

“It seems to me that the time has more than come for there to be serious consideration for legislative change on this aspect of the criminal law.”