MELBOURNE, March 3 (UPI) -- An Australian woman who donned camouflage and killed her abusive husband in a sniper shooting has been acquitted of murder.
Claire MacDonald, 39, of Acheron, was accused of killing John MacDonald, 40, in 2004 with her husband's .22-caliber rifle equipped with a telescopic sight. Prosecutors said she lured him to a paddock with a story about her Land Rover breaking down. She waited for 90 minutes in a "sniper's nest" and later told police her husband would have killed her if she hadn't killed him first.
"I just want to go home," the mother of five said after the verdict, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported.
Evidence showed the victim had raped his wife the night of the shooting as punishment for storing a box of potatoes incorrectly.
Testimony indicated John MacDonald shook his wife by the shoulders when she was in labor and told her to hurry up and deliver the baby.
The jury decided Claire MacDonald had acted in self-defense.
