Eight months after their grandson August “Gus” Lamont vanished from the family’s remote South Australian property, his grandmother Josie Murray has pleaded guilty to an unrelated firearms charge involving a prohibited gun accessory.
Murray, 75, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday and admitted to possessing a “sound moderator” — a device designed to muffle the noise of a firearm, commonly known as a silencer.
The court heard the item was discovered during a police search last year, but prosecutors stressed the charge has no connection to the investigation into Gus’ disappearance.
Murray was convicted and fined $10,500 for owning the gun accessory. The fine was less than the possible maximum penalty of $15,000 because of the early guilty plea. They were also banned from obtaining or holding a firearms licence for five years.
Murray and wife Shannon both withdrew from the active police investigation into their grandson, who went missing from the family home at Oak Park Station, near Yunta, while Shannon was looking after him, according to the family. Both Josie and Shannon Murray are only communicating to police via their lawyers.
Gus Lamont has now been missing for eight months
Taskforce Horizon detectives have confirmed one of the little boy’s grandparents remains a suspect in the disappearance, which has been declared a major crime.
Police have visited the property where the four-year-old boy disappeared 11 times, their search stretching far and wide across the remote South Australian outback.
Only a single trace, a boot print belonging to Gus, has ever been found during the searches.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens previously said investigators had “ruled out Gus having wandered off”.
“There has not been one single piece of evidence that we have located during that searching exercise, the most extensive search, I think arguably in the history of South Australia, that has given us any indication that he did wander off,” he said.
Gus’s parents, Josh and Jess Lamont, who are not suspects, have continued to co-operate with investigators and have repeatedly appealed for information.
Anyone with information is urged to contact police.
