TIME UP FOR TEEN THUGS
VIOLENT bashings at Gold Coast train stations and major shopping centres are becoming a worrying trend as opportunistic teenage thugs prey on the vulnerable for shoes, mobile phones and the pure enjoyment of it.
The Bulletin today details a homophobic attack on two tourist brothers at Coomera Westfield this week and a cold, cruel robbery in which a Gold Coast student bashes and stands over a boy in Edens Landing. Young girls can be heard cackling in the background to the thug’s demands.
In an ongoing theme, they are the fourth attacks this newspaper has reported in the past week. Teenage gang robberies on the heavy rail line or in major shopping centres in recent months include:
● In January, a mum heard her daughter’s screams on the phone as she was attacked and robbed outside a Coomera shopping centre. The 15-year-old and two friends were followed by a group of teens on a train to Coomera.
● In February, a teenager used a Corona bottle to attack the father of another teen while his friends held the man down during a daylight brawl near Helensvale train station.
● In March, a child was severely beaten in a cowardly attack by four teenage boys at Helensvale train station about 6.30pm – all for a pair of shoes. The 12-year-old boy suffered a fractured jaw, chipped tooth and grazing. He tried to run from his attackers and hide in a taxi, but was dragged out and beaten.
● A 17-year-old girl being beaten so severely near Helensvale train station in April that doctors thought she had a broken neck. She was coward punched, dragged to the ground, kicked repeatedly, spat on and her mobile phone taken. The attackers, sisters aged 13 and 16, were part of a larger group. The assault was filmed by one of the gang and posted on social media.
● This month a 13-year-old boy was robbed in broad daylight by four young thugs while he waited with a friend, 11, at Nerang train station during peak hour. The attackers, aged about 16, stole the boy’s new Nike shoes and his friend’s Lacoste hat.
● Last week, a 16-year-old Coombabah High School student suffered concussion, a suspected broken nose, a split lip and cuts and bruises in two unprovoked attacks in a Westfield Helensvale bathroom and at the Helensvale train station. Her ATM card was stolen. Security at the train station intervened but police were not called to the scene.
So concerned by the earlier attacks, police and city leaders launched Operation Romeo Luminous, a blitz on violent youths to make trains and buses safer.
It did not work.
Police are using the city’s extensive CCTV camera network to nab the baby-faced grubs, only for the thugs to escape penalty because of the Youth Justice Act. It is a frustrating exercise for officers, many of whom are living the callous horror of the attacks as mothers and fathers themselves.
Next week is the start of the school holidays. Shopping centres and train stations will be full. The thousands of comments from irate Gold Coasters on online news and community forums suggest the city has had enough.
We know where it is happening. It is time for the revolving door of the courts to meet society’s standards and get tough on these young crooks. Stamp it out before someone goes too far and an innocent is killed.