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The police constable who shot Steven Wallace has spoken out saying officers who cause death in the line of duty should not face private prosecution.
Constable Keith Abbott was on Wednesday found not guilty of murder over two and a half years after fatally shooting the 23-year-old in the main street of Waitara.
Abbott says he never imagined he would be walking to court charged with murder.
"I feel that if I had been found guilty it would've possibly opened up the floodgates to all those other police shooters in the past that have taken that step," he says.
Despite the not guilty verdict Wallace's mother Raewyn Wallace still believes the shooting was reckless.
And she says the jury should have been discharged when one juror was dismissed after it was found he was distantly related to a senior policeman.
"I won't give up I'll never give up, I can't give up... there's something wrong," she says.
Wallace told ONE News she is already talking to lawyers but the not guilty verdict means Abbott will never again be tried for Wallace's murder, although they could take a civil action against the police claiming trauma-related damages.
The Wallace family enlisted two Queen's Counsel for the High Court trial and with no legal aid face a bill of tens of thousands of dollars.
John Rowan QC says that neither he nor his co-counsel have charged the Wallace family fees to date.
Meanwhile, while he backs calls by the police commissioner for special protection for police in the line of duty the man who shot Steven Wallace has more modest goals.
"Just to get back to work ,get back to my family and get on with a normal life, as normal as possible," Abbott says.
But it is likely that life will be lived away from Waitara.
Police protection?
Police Minister George Hawkins says he is expecting a report soon on ways to protect police officers from similar private prosecutions in the future.
But opponents say an exemption will create a separate law for police.
"There is a great issue of who guards the guards... and there would be a real danger that the police force would not act appropriately," Wallace family lawyer John Rowan QC says.
Others support the police commissioner, including John Adams of the Medical Association.
"In most professions it's very important that the professions can function in an environment where they can do their job without fear that they are going to be unnecessarily held to account," he says.
Ambulance and fire service staff say they accept the public right to take private prosecutions against them.
But they say police and army personnel should be treated differently for the simple reason that they are often armed on everyday duty.
