16yo boy sentenced for arming himself with boning knife off shelf at Geraldton House store

A teenager has been sentenced over a shopping centre rampage which escalated into him arming himself with a boning knife off a store shelf and throwing concrete at people.

The 16-year-old boy responsible appeared in Geraldton Children’s Court on Thursday from custody after an arrest warrant was issued due to him not showing up to court on Tuesday.

The boy had previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm from a different incident and accepted responsibility to five charges from the fight that included two counts of endangering life, being armed, criminal damage and disorderly behaviour in public. He pleaded guilty to breaching bail on Thursday.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Carey Owen told the court the incident at Stirlings Central shopping centre on June 16 saw the boy engage in a fight with another person in the car park, with many members of the public around.

The fight quickly moved inside the shopping centre and escalated at the front of the House shop front, where the 16-year-old and victim picked up several plates from display and threw them at each other.

Sgt Owen said the boy picked up a boning knife off the shelf to arm himself with, and began chasing the victim around the store with it.

As a security guard tried to intervene, the boy picked up a concrete slab and threw it at the guard and victim. As the victim was running away he was hit in the back of the head with the concrete brick.

Sgt Owen told the court about another assault the boy had admitted to which occurred on November 26 last year. A fight had broken out at the Geraldton foreshore when the victim tried to break it up.

The teenager ran behind the victim and used a right closed fist to punch him in the head.

Sgt Owen said the victim immediately fell unconscious and his head hit the road, causing a large cut.

The teenager walked away and left the victim on the road, but the incident was captured on CCTV camera and he was arrested later that same day.

The teen’s lawyer Prue Harrison said the boy accepted these instances were the wrong way to deal with confrontation, arguing he should placed on an order.

“I believe he is a young person in need of more support,” she said.

Magistrate Angus Hockton told the teenager how serious these types of offences were, saying that anything less than an intensive supervision order would be inappropriate.

“When people are just doing their shopping, they shouldn’t have this type of behaviour happening around them. . . you should not be bringing fights into public places,” he said.

The teenager was placed on a seven-month intensive supervision order.