‘Guilty tax’ adds to bus attack bill
A TEEN who used an iron bar in a violent bus attack at Burleigh Heads has become one of the first Queenslanders hit with the State Government’s mandatory ‘‘guilty tax’’.
Murray Marshall, 18, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court to one count of going armed to cause fear. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
He was also ordered to pay $3970 compensation for damage to the bus.
On top of the penalty, the teenager will pay the $100 offender’s levy which was officially introduced across Queensland yesterday.
All offenders who plead or are found guilty will be forced to pay the automatic administrative levy of $100 for magistrate court matters, or $300 for higher court cases.
Marshall admitted that on June 24 this year he and a ‘‘mob’’ of mates were out for revenge on a group of Tweed Heads boys for injuring a friend and they vandalised a Surfside bus with iron bars after spotting a target on board.
The shocking attack, caught on Surfside bus security cameras, showed passengers cowering and screaming in fear as more than 40 youths swarmed around the stationary bus smashing windows with bars.
Frightened passengers told police they thought the bus was being shot at as glass windows shattered around them.
The court was told Marshall reached inside a broken window to make an obscene gesture and badly gashed a hand.
The teens scattered before police arrived but Marshall was later arrested after a passenger recognised him from high school.
He was the only person arrested and charged over the incident.
Barrister Chris Rosser said Marshall had been drunk that night but had since sought help for his alcohol addiction and left the Gold Coast to live in Mackay with his mother.
Magistrate Michael O’Driscoll ordered Marshall serve probation for two years but warned he could face jail time if he continued to offend with ‘‘Burleigh lowlifes’’.
The magistrate ordered he pay half the $7940 bus repair bill.
Marshall also pleaded guilty to separate offences of robbing a Burleigh restaurant in April and carrying knuckledusters in May.
He was ordered to serve a concurrent probation period of two years and was fined $500.
No convictions were recorded.